Amazon Prime Features In-Car Delivery
For a select group of people, Amazon provides the convenience of delivery of your Amazon Prime package to your car. You simply mark the “In-Car Delivery” service box at checkout. A service available only to Amazon Prime members. Who drive eligible GM or Volvo cars. Who also live in one of 37 US cities where the service launched last month. One further limitation is necessary. The car must have OnStar or Volvo on Call for the authentication process.
Access Point Security
The Amazon couriers do not have direct access to the car. The unlock command is issued through the car’s connected system. Amazon’s technology department says, “We only actually do the unlock if it’s the right person, right place, right car, right time.” Encouraging to have some security protocols in place.
Last year Amazon introduced front door delivery. Inside the house. Called, Amazon Key, it gathers several IoT technologies coupled with a house camera that records the event. It works! As the linked video cleverly shows. Now Amazon expands delivery service with In-Car Delivery.
Creative Convenience
Some potential scenarios where the in-car delivery is helpful: 1) the mom who doesn’t want the doorbell to wake her sleeping toddlers; 2) keeping a birthday present a secret; 3) separating personal deliveries from business while at work; 4) using the at-home car as the “vault” so that packages don’t serve as enticements on the front porch while the family enjoys the beach. Your convenience gets creative!
Further Mechanisms
An article by Verge, details further mechanisms regarding the location of the car: “To access the new delivery service, you need to add your car to your Amazon Key app and include a description of the vehicle, so Amazon’s couriers will be able to locate it. The car needs to be parked within a certain radius of an address used for Amazon deliveries, either home or work. Driveways, parking lots, parking garages, and street parking are all eligible locations, just as long as it’s not at some random address across town.”
What’s next in delivery? Drone technology with robotics? Could a robot do a better job of identifying the car, communicating access and making the delivery without secondary security issues? Very possibly.
