Volvo's digital keys let delivery drivers make drop offs in your car

The buzz around making vehicles always-on Internet hubs has long seemed like a solution in search of a problem. Why does your dashboard need its own apps, mobile operating system and audio/video streaming software when most smartphones can do the same jobs better? (Or display ads?) And what good is a system like General Motors' OnStar if you only use it in emergencies?

Thanks to Volvo, we now have an idea of one task such technology seems perfect for: Letting UPS, FedEx and your local pizza delivery guy use your car as a shipping address.

Set to be unveiled later this month at the mobile tech industry's global convention in Barcelona, Volvo calls its system "digital keys." Under the concept, shoppers would designate their car as the eventual destination when they ordered their Thai food or camo-print Snuggie. A smartphone app would alert them to the arrival and departure of the delivery person, who would have their own car-tracking app and a code that allows for a one-time access to the customer's Volvo. Once it's used, the digital key disappears.