Why is the delivery guy needed? For the majority of packages and deliveries, it could be completely automated. Anything bulky or non-standard would either be a

Why is the delivery guy needed? For the majority of packages and deliveries, it could be completely automated. Anything bulky or non-standard would either be a separate delivery, or require pickup. I think Amazon will be in this space first; heck, it might be most efficient (not energy-wise, of course) to just deliver the packages ad-hoc from the warehouse; imagine if their warehouse robots could leave the warehouse and deliver the package immediately - perhaps as soon as your order is completed! They already have the standard-sized packaging for most things; they'd just need "standard-sized robots" for the delivery to handle the packages. Or - in some far-off future that probably won't occur - imagine if the packaging boxes were the robots...