Amazon Will Start Delivering Inside Your House

published Oct 25, 2017

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Do you frequently miss packages (or do they routinely go missing)? Amazon’s planning to put them in the safest place—inside your house.

The retailer announced Wednesday their new service for Prime members called Amazon Key, where the company’s delivery drivers will deposit your packages directly inside your home.

The service launches in 37 cities starting November 8, with more locations rolling out over time. In-home delivery is available at no extra cost—for each delivery. The service, however, does require quite some setup and up-front costs, like a smart lock and Amazon’s new security Cloud Cam, which come in the company’s Key In-Home Kit that starts at $249.99 and comes with free professional installation.

But that’s assuming you’re cool with delivery folks just letting themselves in when you’re not home. And for their part, Amazon is trying to assuage any fears:

This state-of-the-art technology doesn’t simply replace a key with a digital passcode. Each time a delivery driver requests access to a customer’s home, Amazon verifies that the correct driver is at the right address, at the intended time, through an encrypted authentication process. Once this process is successfully completed, Amazon Cloud Cam starts recording and the door is then unlocked. No access codes or keys are ever provided to delivery drivers. And, for added peace of mind, in-home delivery is backed by Amazon’s Happiness Guarantee.

And it won’t just be packages ordered from Amazon; the company plans to integrate other service providers into the Key app, such as “home cleaning experts from Merry Maids and pet sitters and dog walkers on Rover.com, as well as over 1,200 services from providers across 60 professions via Amazon Home Services.” It will also allow you to let friends in if you’re not home or can’t answer the door.

In-home deliveries are having a moment. Last month, Walmart announced a partnership with August Home smart locks and their pilot program testing in-home delivery, including for groceries that are then unpacked and put into the fridge for you. Needless to say, readers had mixed feelings about it.

What do you think? Tell us in the comments.