Convenience isn’t easy. In the old days, you’d have to sign for packages, and then, as rules relaxed, you could count on packages getting stolen off your porch. Now Amazon has a whole host of different high tech delivery options. Starting today, that includes the option to give Amazon package-toting strangers access to your garage.
The new Key for Garage service is exactly what it sounds like. It gives Amazon Prime members and Amazon delivery personnel remote access to your garage door, so that packages can be left inside. To take advantage of the new service, you’ll need a garage door opener that’s connected to a Chamberlain myQ Smart Garage Hub. This $80 device essentially gives you access to the door’s controls through your phone. It’s also how Amazon delivery folks can open the door to drop off packages.
If you feel a little weirded out by people you don’t know being able to open your garage door, the Key for Garage service will also let you use an Amazon Cloud Cam to monitor the space. However, unlike the standard Amazon Key program, which lets strangers in your front door and requires a Cloud Cam for security, the camera is purely optional for the new garage service. Key for Garage joins Amazon Key In-Car, a service that lets strangers into your trunk, as innovative ways to get Amazon packages delivered.
If you’re interested in signing up for Key for Garage, you can see if you have a compatible garage door opener at Amazon’s new website for the program. While you’re browsing the Amazon website, you can also buy some discounted equipment to make your garage door compatible. And if this idea of random Amazon contractors wandering into your home feels a bit creepy, you can always just drive to Walmart and buy your stuff there like an old fashioned human.
Update 3:00pm: Amazon reached out to clarify exactly who delivers these packages and what they do near your house. In an email, a spokesperson wrote:
Amazon does not “want to let strangers into” anyone’s home or garage. Key offers Prime members the option to have a fully vetted and background-checked Amazon delivery driver place a package just inside their door. Delivery drivers do not actually enter the home or garage, customers can watch the whole process via their Cloud Cam… and you can cancel a Key delivery up until the moment the driver scans your package at your door if you change your mind.
Again, the Cloud Cam thing is optional.