Amazon Key In-Car turns a parked car into a parcel locker

Doorstep deliveries get stolen or left in the weather, and couriers often meet an empty house. Amazon had already been placing parcels inside homes with Amazon Key.

In April 2018 it extended the idea to vehicles: a Prime member links their connected car to the Key app and picks In-Car at checkout.

On delivery day the courier is authenticated, the trunk opens, the parcel is placed and the trunk relocks, all logged in the app and with no codes or keys ever handed to the driver.

It launched free in 37 cities, first for newer GM and Volvo cars, reusing a vehicle the customer already parks at home.

Use the customer's own car as a secure drop box

The parked car is a locked, unattended box already sitting at the delivery address.

Encrypted authentication and an app activity feed keep a stranger from holding the unlock.

Because no extra hardware is needed, the service scaled to millions of cars at once.

It moves the drop point from an exposed doorstep to a closed, monitored one.

Look for an asset the customer already owns and parks all day: a locked car beats a better porch box.

Amazon Key In-Car spread to more makes and markets and joined a set of deliver-where-you-are options, extending Amazon's push to own the final metre of delivery; wider uptake stayed behind the simpler package-on-porch default.