Slashdot Mirror


Amazon Will Soon Offer To Deliver Packages To Your Garage So They Don't Get Stolen (cnbc.com)

Amazon has a new way to prevent thieves from stealing packages. In early 2019, Amazon will offer to deliver packages right into your garage, the company announced Monday at CES. The service is called Key for Garage, and joins Amazon's Key for Home and Key for Car services. From a report: Key for Garage, like Key for Home, requires some additional hardware. You'll need a $80 Chamberlain myQ Smart Home bridge, which will let Amazon talk to your garage door opener so that it can be opened by a delivery person. Folks who already own that hub will be able to use it. You'll also need an Amazon Prime subscription. Unlike Key for Home, you don't need a camera to record the delivery. This method of delivery might be welcomed by people who didn't like Key for Home (previously simply known as Amazon Key), which didn't always work well if you had dogs at home, didn't want to let Amazon into your house, or had an alarm system.

6 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. So they can steal my tools? by irrational_design · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Where I live, Amazon delivery drivers have already been caught stealing packages from porches when dropping off their deliveries. The tools in my garage are a lot more valuable than any package on my porch.

  2. Why? by Locke2005 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Or, you know, we could start building homes with a locked cabinet on the front porch to deliver packages into... personally, I want an "arctic entrance" (vestibule with inner and outer doors) so I can just give Amazon drivers the key to the outside door! Plus also saves on heat/cooling loss if only one one door is opened at a time.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    1. Re:Why? by vux984 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Hell, even an unlocked mail 'box' would make big difference. Packages out of sight are packages out of mind. Now the thief has to actually come up to the door and check if there is something to steal instead of just walking down the street seeing packages just sitting there for the taking.

      A basic lock would be even better, but I think you'd curb most of the problem just by getting the packages out of sight.

    2. Re:Why? by DarkOx · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes 2019, the return of milk door.

      Srsly this probably the correct solution. Because like a lot of posters i don't want someone I don't know entering my garage any more than my house. In fact less probably. I would notice pretty quickly if any of the valuables went missing in the house. I have a lot of valuable tools automotive and woodcraft in drawers and cases that someone could remove and I could go weeks, in some cases months or longer, without discovering they were missing.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
  3. Pickup Point? by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I live in Vancouver, Canada. I certainly don't mind going to an Amazon.ca "pickup point" to get my packages, but the way it's arranged is a disorganized mess as you can only pick up purchases fulfilled by Amazon. As Amazon doesn't want to discourage you from buying from third parties (more profit for them) they make it difficult to filter those options out of their search results, so it's hard to exclude them. Just make it possible to get anything I buy from Amazon.ca retrievable from a pickup point and the problem is solved - At least for me, anyway.

    1. Re:Pickup Point? by CWCheese · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There once was a company called Sears, Roebuck and Co which had pickup points all over the nation. They let you order from a catalog and pick up the items when they were ready. Sadly, the company shut down their catalog just a couple years before ecommerce exploded and they never bothered to figure out they could restart the catalog on the internet. Now they are literally hours away from liquidating the corporation and finally going into the sunset.

      --
      Have a Day!