FedEx Senseaware tracks everything about your package, probably causes OCD

What do you get when you throw cellular and GPS radios in with an accelerometer, a thermometer and a light sensor? If you answered a decently featured phone, you'd be almost right. FedEx has concocted the above tracker to be able to tell you everything about the package it's in -- if it has been opened, dropped, outside of temperature range, or insufficiently loved by its deliverator. The GPS and cellular signals are used to provide a real time position, and all that data is fed through a web platform for the increasingly obsessive sender to monitor. It is now being deployed with 50 medical clients -- who actually have a use for all the intel -- and once production ramps up and economies of scale kick in, the opening price of $120 a month is expected to drop rapidly. You can expect the Senseaware tracker to show up worldwide some time next year.

[NAME Posted Nov 27th 2009 8:25AM]

The only problem is that you dont need it for Fed-Ex-Con.

You need it for those losers that work for UPS, that dont know how to read. ok say it with me F-R-I-G-I-L-E, DO-N-O-T C-R-U-S-H

[Inf Posted Nov 27th 2009 8:44AM]

Am i the only one that reads "UPS" as "oops" ?

[arkweld Posted Nov 27th 2009 8:48AM]

@(Unverified)

well, what do you expect? If you write "frigile" on the box then nobody will understand what it means.

[LWhitson2 Posted Nov 27th 2009 8:51AM]

Ok now, say it with me, L-E-A-R-N T-O S-P-E-L-L.

[Wwhat Posted Nov 27th 2009 9:13AM]

I wonder if there actually is a way to send a package without it being tossed around like crazy, I know of no company that doesn't abuse them.

[Milander Posted Nov 27th 2009 11:05AM]

@(Unverified)
In denmark where i come from oops is spelled ups XD

[vlad the inhaler Posted Nov 27th 2009 8:43AM]

ups and dhl would never do this.

they'd lose all their customers.

[PBB Posted Nov 27th 2009 9:52AM]

@vlad the inhaler
DHL doesn't even exist anymore. Its FedEx now

[1 Posted Nov 27th 2009 8:46AM]

Obligatory. http://xkcd.com/281/

[blackpanther25 Posted Nov 27th 2009 9:09AM]

wow so not needed

[barry99705 Posted Nov 27th 2009 1:03PM]

@blackpanther25 You must work for FedEx.

[Wwhat Posted Nov 27th 2009 9:09AM]

"During plane rides, the device automatically goes into sleep mode, monitoring data but temporarily silencing the data relays."

So lift it over your head and go 300MPH and it's defeated!

[gofthick Posted Nov 27th 2009 9:25AM]

What happens when you receive your package? I wonder how efficient these would be at tracking your wife's evening excursions with the girls..

[Ryan85 Posted Nov 27th 2009 9:32AM]

deliverator? Is that even a real word?

[Yemble Posted Nov 27th 2009 11:03AM]

@Ryan85 It's from the novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

[Torch Posted Nov 27th 2009 9:45AM]

My package is so big it doesn't need tracking.

[Poop Chef Posted Nov 27th 2009 12:25PM]

@Torch

I heard your package is so big it crushed the delivery man.

[allenvanhellen Posted Nov 27th 2009 9:56AM]

Maybe I'm a bit of a hippie, but... really, people? Really?

I had a vision of a more anal-retentive version of myself, concerned because my new Nokia fashion phone was subjected to .01 too many g-forces, in my ignorant opinion... but, fortunately for the hard-working and under-paid delivery man, I didn't raise hell about it.

[Wwhat Posted Nov 27th 2009 10:35PM]

@(Unverified)
You never sent or received a package i gather.
In reality they get paid well enough and you can send a 5 inch steel bar in 300 feet of bubble wrap and there's a fair chance it arrives scratched and bent, and people don't like that.

[SOOPERGOOMAN Posted Nov 27th 2009 10:01AM]

The only thing causing OCD right now is H!N1.....

[HurricaneDC Posted Nov 27th 2009 11:20AM]

I wouldn't wanna use it. I'd get trapped into refreshing the tracker page every minute, watching its slow progress through interstates of America.

There's something nice about checking the package every few hours and seeing how it's suddenly gone from the middle of nowhere Kentucky to your local processing facility. Then the anticipation...

...which makes me think this could actually be quite useful. If you see that it's close to your house, you just go to your home and pick it up there. Instead of missing the delivery and having to reschedule it or go to the processing center.

[alexman98 Posted Nov 27th 2009 1:15PM]

"Now you will know if the delivery service is giving to your stuff the right amount of love or not, a soft cushion, a cup of tea, comfortable slippers..." God, someone should tell Apple to ship the new 27" iMacs with one of this things. And why not, maybe (just maybe) the DOA rates will go down.

[taylorlauder Posted Nov 27th 2009 2:01PM]

If you have tried to send a package before internationally, then you know the hassles of tracking your product via the internet.

Sometimes you are crossing your fingers if the package was already sent or was stolen. This new gadget is a "god-sent" for people who do this kind of business everyday.

More senseware preview: http://bit.ly/fed-ex-almost-real-time-tracker

Hopefully more will be made for enterprise tracking

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 27th 2009 2:06PM]

@taylorlauder Yes, but unfortunately, the device is USA-only. Probably has to do with the cellular radios or not having data agreements in other countries.

[Wwhat Posted Nov 27th 2009 10:38PM]

@taylorlauder
What those companies should do is hide it in random packages as a quality check, instead of making it clear and obvious where they are so those packages get treated better.

[MessyDesktops Posted Nov 27th 2009 6:07PM]

Now if only they stopped leaving the darned packages just sitting there outside of your apartment in plain sight instead of the office like all other decent package shippers...

I also hate it when places don't flat out say who they are using for shipping until well after you order.

[KAL326 Posted Nov 28th 2009 7:49PM]

I'm curious as to how you get them back? I checked around an nothing seems to indicate what happens once they have been sent. Are they reusable, etc. Interesting idea, but if they are a one time use thing I can see them being kind of pricey for a while. Seems they would only be useful for situations where you sent packages back and forth between parties frequently if you have to get them back.