Samsung and Samsonite are going to make smart suitcases together

Samsonite and Samsung will equip a line of their suitcases with a GPS chip so that users can track their suitcase. In addition, the ‘smart’ suitcase must also be able to tell whether the piece of baggage has been opened in between.

The suitcase should also be able to check itself in at airports and inform the user whether the suitcase has indeed been removed from the aircraft and is already on the baggage claim. That writes The Daily Mail. To market the suitcase, Samsonite and Samsung are working together with Emirates, KLM/Air France and Lufthansa.

The airlines are working on a system in which the bag or suitcase identifies itself to the airport and the chip identifies the owner. Details such as travel destination and the like can be found via the chip. Instead of checking in, the owner just needs to put the suitcase on a baggage claim, like when collecting the baggage at the end of a flight. After check-in, the information is also automatically sent to the owner’s mobile phone so that they know that the luggage has indeed been checked in.

Before that, there are still some hurdles to overcome. For example, the same system must be in use at all airports and it is not the intention that a passenger can be in contact with his luggage during the flight, although it is unclear why exactly. It is possible that airlines fear the radiation that is produced.

In addition to the GPS addition, Samsonite is also working on a self-driving suitcase that automatically follows the user over a short distance. It probably won’t be in stores anytime soon. At the moment, the motor, together with the batteries, still needs a third of the space in the suitcase and the suitcase weighs twenty kilos.

Samsonite is not the first with a ‘smart’ suitcase. A similar idea was successfully crowdfunded via Indigogo last year: Bluesmart, a carry-on suitcase where everything can be controlled or read remotely, such as the lock, the distance to the suitcase and the weight.