If you’ve ordered something from Amazon, the company will go through hell and high water to deliver it.
After running tests for delivering items through the air with drones, and delivering items straight into users’ homes through Amazon Key, Amazon will now deliver packages straight into users’ parked cars. The move is supposedly a way to counter having to leave unattended packages at users’ doorsteps, which can often be stolen. By depositing packages into customers’ cars, Amazon will ensure that they safely reach their owners.
The service is now live in 37 American cities, and comes free with a Prime subscription. Packages can be delivered to cars that have a connected car service provided by the manufacturer, which allows for the car to be opened remotely. Amazon’s Key app can then be connected to the connected car service, which automatically unlocks the car when the delivery executive is ready to drop off the package. The car is also automatically locked once the package is placed inside the car. Customers get real-time updates on the entire process through notifications on their Amazon apps.
The in-car delivery is only the latest way that Amazon’s devised to have its packages reach customers. It does seem to have some obvious benefits — users don’t have to answer the doorbell, and can collect them from their cars at their convenience. The in-car delivery also obviates the need to physically interact with the delivery executive, who might arrive when you’re not particularly inclined to receive.
Amazon’s car deliveries might seem shocking at first, but they have the potential to become more popular than Amazon’s other somewhat outlandish methods of package delivery. Amazon’s been testing deliveries through drones for a while now, though they haven’t exactly become mainstream. Just last year, Amazon had launched something called Amazon Key, which required users to purchase a $220 kit which came with a camera and a smart lock. This smart lock would allow Amazon delivery executives to enter customers’ homes with their packages, place them near the door, and leave. But customers might just be more willing to let delivery executives access to their car instead of their whole house.
The market for such a service is admittedly small, but it’s probably a testament to Amazon’s desire to keep innovating that such a service has even been released. Amazon’s already the biggest online retailer in the world, but it continues to push the envelope on how e-commerce is conducted. And people will likely do a double-take about the idea of letting open their cars for a deliver person to slip a package in, but stranger things have happened in technology. Until a decade ago, it would’ve been unfathomable to enter a strangers’ car, or share your taxi ride with others, but ride hailing services have made both commonplace. And who knows, getting packages delivered to cars might just become the next big thing in e-commerce.