Amazon Can Unlock Your Home for Deliveries, and Now Your Car, Too

Amazon already wants to leave packages in your home when you aren’t there with Amazon Key, and now the company is expanding that to your car. Assuming you have a compatible car, Amazon can now drop off deliveries in your trunk at home and in parking lots.

Amazon Key deliveries expand from your home to your car

Amazon describes its new addition to Amazon Key like this:

As a Prime member, get your Amazon packages securely delivered right into your vehicle parked at home, at work or near other locations in your address book. Park your vehicle in a publicly accessible area to receive in-car deliveries, and track your packages with real-time notifications.

The service isn’t, however, for everyone. You’ll need a 2015 or newer car with OnStar or Volvo On Call. Here are the supported car brands:

• Chevrolet


• Buick


• GMC


• Cadillac


• Volvo

You need to link Amazon Key to your OnStar or Volvo On Call service. When your delivery driver arrives at your car, the service remotely opens your trunk or hatchback. Amazon’s drivers can’t open your car on their own.

Amazon Key Home versus Car

Amazon Key launched last year as a service where Prime members could get packages delivered inside their homes when they weren’t there. The service required Prime members to buy a smart lock and camera combo so drivers could request a remote unlock of your door and have their picture taken as they drop off the package.

[Amazon Key Lets Amazon Couriers Leave Packages Inside Your Home]

Delivering packages inside instead of leaving them on your porch should cut down on theft, although Amazon Key requires a certain level of trust. While you door can be opened only when an Amazon driver has a package to deliver, your personal space is open and visible to a stranger, even if only briefly.

That raised some serious trust issues for Amazon shoppers. The idea of Amazon having the ability to remotely unlock doors raised security concerns, and the required camera aimed at the door raised privacy concerns.

Delivering to cars could cut down on those worries, at least for some Prime customers. First, Amazon’s drivers have access to your car and not your home. Second, the unlock request is handled by OnStar or Volvo On Call instead of Amazon.

Amazon Key and Privacy

Amazon Key is supposed to make shopping more convenient for Prime subscribers, and cut down on lost and stolen packages, too. Giving Amazon access to our homes and cars, however, feels like a big intrusion into our personal lives.

[How to Disable Amazon’s Photo on Delivery Feature]

The online retailer already knows what you shop for and buy on its site. It has ears in your home if you have an Echo or other Alexa-compatible device, and now has eyes at your front door thanks to its purchase of Ring.

Now Amazon can open our front doors and cars, too. Next they just need to perfect anticipating what we want to buy and have it waiting in our living room or trunk before we place the order.

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