April 24, 2018
Brace yourselves. Apparently the future is here.
Today Amazon announced that Amazon Key — the service that already makes in-home delivery and has keyless access to your home — is expanding to car deliveries.
That is, deliveries made inside of your vehicle.
If you’re a prime member and own a compatible 2015 or newer Chevrolet, Buick, GMC or Cadillac vehicle with an active OnStar account and you live in one of these 37 cities — including Philadelphia — you are eligible for in-car delivery today.
The idea is to eliminate package theft, which is why Amazon started the Amazon Key in-home delivery to begin with. But the Internet is having a hard time with in-car delivery so far. Admittedly, it sounds weird to have Amazon delivery people go inside of your vehicle's trunk to deliver your new toaster oven within same day, two-day or standard shipping.
Amazon Key is a new service that allows strangers to enter your home, hide in your closet, and kill you in your sleep. Free with Prime!
— Michael Patrick Hicks (@MikeH5856) October 25, 2017
Why? Why? Why? #AmazonKey pic.twitter.com/XvhOS15TiT
— Peg Price (@PegPrice) April 24, 2018
It's still only the first day for the new feature. So just for good measure, this is how it all works.
First, download the Amazon Key App and link your Prime account to your car-service account. Then you can verify the zip code of your home or workplace to see if it's eligible for delivery. When you check-out on Amazon, just select the “In-Car” delivery method.
On delivery day, you’ll receive notifications via the Amazon Key App when it is on its way and when it has been delivered inside your vehicle. You can check in that app when the car has been unlocked and then re-locked, too.
Amazon says that it will check the location of every delivery driver when an in-car delivery is about to be made to ensure the identity of the driver. Compared to in-home delivery that involves an Amazon keypad for your front door, this may be a bit less invasive because no codes or keys are ever provided to those drivers.
Apparently this is all backed up by “Amazon’s Happiness Guarantee,” which doesn’t actually guarantee that much. If there was an incident or you’re unhappy with the delivery, you can reach out to see what kind of compensation they can give you for the bad delivery.
Just make sure you snap some photos or document the damages in some way.
As an Amazon Flex Driver, it's invasive enough taking pics of packages on porches while delivering. Now they want me to open your car? Please no. I don't want to get shot at...#AmazonKey
— Devlyn Angel (@devlyn_angel) April 24, 2018
