Honda teamed up with Amazon to bring the convenience of in-car delivery to a small handful of models in its lineup. Owners of compatible cars who are Amazon Prime members will be able to get their orders delivered straight to their car’s trunk in mere hours starting in July 2019. The service is not available across the entire Honda range, however.
Already offered on dozens of cars made by other automakers, Key by Amazon lets motorists receive parcels while they’re at work, in class, at yoga, or asleep. The process couldn’t be simpler: customers shop on Amazon as they normally would, and they select the in-car delivery option at check-out. Amazon notes motorists need to park within two blocks of their selected delivery address in order to use Key, and the driver locates the car using GPS data.
The Amazon app gives customers an “arriving now” notification so they know their parcel is nearly ready for delivery. Once drivers locate the car, they unlock it remotely, put the parcel in the trunk, and lock it with the same software. Out of sight, out of mind. Using Key by Amazon to turn your Honda into a mailbox is normally a better, safer option than letting a package sit on your front porch while you’re at work, or hoping whatever is inside it can survive a soccer-style kick over a gate.
Key by Amazon is available starting July 23, 2019, but odds are most Honda owners in the United States will not be able to use it because it’s not compatible with every member of the company’s portfolio. The list of cars it’s available in includes only the upmarket variants of a small handful of models; it’s not offered on the popular Civic and CR-V yet. The 2018-2019 Accord Touring (including the hybrid model), the 2019-2020 Insight Touring, the 2018-2019 Odyssey Touring and Elite, and both the Touring and Elite variants of the 2019 Passport and Pilot are compatible with the service.
Next, to use Key, you need to find yourself in one of 50 American cities or the area surrounding them. Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, and Seattle are on the list. You also need to have an active Amazon Prime account, and unlocking the service requires a HondaLink Remote subscription priced at $110 a year.
Honda told Digital Trends it plans to add the feature to more models in the not-too-distant future.
“Future models and trims that incorporate 4GLTE capability in conjunction with HondaLink connected-car services will be eligible to receive this service,” a company spokesperson told us via email.
