In the US, there used to (~1980s) be plenty of storage
lockers at bus depots, train stations, and airports.
The gradual awareness in the US of the possibilities of terrorism
- UNABOM, the NI/IRA "Troubles", the 1993 WTC bombing, and
similar - gradually drove out most such anonymous-user
lockers, and after
9/11 they tended to be blocked off or removed more quickly,
even as people still had interest in cost-effective
short-term storage. Current arrangements seem to want
an existing relationship (overnight guest) or a paper
trail (ID + credit card).
Package storage in NTC vehicles allows the possibility
of having multiple devices being summoned to one or more
specific locations at specific times. What could possibly go wrong?
People need to go home sometimes. This would be pretty complicated dealing with issues like someone being late to get their stuff. At least a shop can say come back tomorrow.
Yeah it's a state persistence issue. Your worker literally times out and state is lost. So maybe a central repository (database) or hand-off to a new worker. Then there's the whole idea of security and trust.
Like I said, it's a dumb idea. Which is why I expect to see an SV startup try it.
I'm Cody's co-founder. That is literally the origin of Bounce. "Bounce" your things away from you and back to you when you need them again. As mentioned it obviously comes with a host of challenges that you don't have in the current decentralised and static model - but I do believe it's achievable. And it's definitely something we want to tackle long term!
This idea, but in the trunks of Ubers (as a side gig for the driver), rather than static locations. You can summon your shit wherever you end up.