Amazon can now deliver packages to your car's trunk.
Amrich damiro This is Rich on Tech Daily.
Amazon is expanding its Amazon Key program. Previously, they were able to open your front door and leave a package inside. Now they can open your car's trunk and leave a package in there. Amazon says the new service is live in thirty seven cities around the nation, including Los Angeles. But there are some caveats. Let me explain how this all works for starters. You have to sign up for the program, but you don't need any extra hardware for your car. I'll explain that in a moment. You place
your Amazon order as usual. Then at checkout you choose the in car delivery option. Amazon's going to give you a four hour window for your delivery. You just have to make sure that you park your car in a publicly accessible place. Amazon will then use GPS to navigate to and find your car, and then when they are within range of your car, the driver requests that your carr is remotely unlocked. Now this is where the type
of car you have comes into play. Right now, the service only works with on Star and Volvo on Call, which means that you have to have a twenty fifteen or newer Chevy, gmc Buick or Cadillac with an active on Star account. Now, not sure what that means, the active part of that. I want to get some clarification on that from Amazon, because if you're not paying for OnStar, you can still have an account with them which lets you remotely unlock your door.
So I think that should be good.
But I hope you don't need a paid account because that would keep a lot of people from using this. But if you just have to have an active on Star account, like just with an email address and login, and that would be pretty cool. Now for Volvo, it's a twenty fifteen or newer. Amazon says it's going to add more cars over time. A lot of cars are becoming connected, so they just have to interface with those
different systems. But these two services alone, according to Amazon, represents seven million cars on the road right now, and Amazon is not.
Charging any extra for the service.
But if you change your mind, you can always reroute your package to another address. You're going to get a confirmation text when the package is safely in your car, and it doesn't necessarily have to be the trunk, although I'm assuming that's the preferred location for leaving a package in your car. This is not the first time a car has been a package delivery location. Various startups here in the US and Europe have tried the idea, with
varying degrees of success. But Amazon is obviously now the biggest and when Amazon does something well, it puts it in the front and center, and so people take notice. Bottom line, Amazon really just wants to be everywhere, no matter what you think about this idea. They want customers to feel like they can get their stuff no matter what. You don't have to use this if you don't want to, if you don't trust it. But for Amazon, more deliveries
translates into more sales. And yes, theoretically, a bad guy can watch the Amazon delivery truck pull up to a car, drop off a package, drive off, and then spring into action, robbing the package right from the car. But think about it, what's to stop anyone from doing the same thing with
an Amazon delivery truck in a neighborhood. So at this point it seems like Amazon's looking for even more ways to make more secure package deliveries, and until all homes are built with a special drop off lockbox for packages.
Your trunk just might be the next best thing. But tell me what you think.
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