Self-driving cars: Google awarded patent for self-driving delivery trucks

Google has been awarded a patent for a self-driving truck concept that will potentially be used to autonomously deliver parcels to customers.The design revolves around a truck accoutered in the same paraphernalia that you'd find on Google's self-driving cars along with a mechanism to ensure that the right customer gets what he ordered. This will apparently be accomplished by placing parcels in lockers that can be accessed via a pin, NFC, or a customer's credit card.While the grant of the patent itself is not guarantee that the project will ever see the light of day, the announcement comes just on the heels of a verdict by the US government, declaring driver-less cars to be their own driver.Incidentally, Google is working on their so called "Project Wing" system that aims to use drones to deliver parcels. Amazon's own drone-based delivery program is also in the works and has garnered some attention the world over.Will autonomous vehicles render the traditional postal service obsolete?