The idea of using your phone or smartwatch as a car key has been going on for a while, and some – usually more expensive – vehicles are already equipped to let you do this. However, the implementation is hugely inconsistent across car brands and sometimes even requires certain phone models to work. Until recently, the necessary software wasn’t even pre-built into devices, which means that you need a third-party app to lock and unlock your car.
However, all of that is changing. At Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference last summer, it introduced a new car keys protocol that integrated the feature into the iOS Wallet app, the same place where your credit cards are stored. However, to date, the company has only partnered with BMW to roll it out.
Today Samsung unveiled its new one Galaxy S21 range of smartphones, and, like Apple, it also bins digital key hardware and software directly into its phones. Unlike Apple, the Korean tech giant has announced partnerships with Ford, Genesis and Audi, as well as BMW, to bring the feature “in the near future” to more makes and models.
It’s not just the willingness to collaborate that makes digital car keys more accessible – hardware also plays a role. Previously, digital keys relied entirely on a technology called Near Field Communication or NFC. NFC is how you can pay for things by tapping on a payment terminal with your phone; it is also the basis behind those tags that you can buy and stick around the house, so that it automatically sets an alarm when you put your phone on your bedside table, for example.
NFC is a wonderfully simple and practical technology, but it requires almost physical contact to work. Often times this is good – you don’t want to accidentally pay for someone else’s shampoo when you’re at the checkout at Target. However, a newer protocol called ultra-wideband (UWB) improves NFC by providing extremely location-based communication over short distances. Car manufacturers and technology companies think it is a good choice for unlocking car doors.
At Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event today where it showed off its new phone, Samsung’s Kevin Chung described how unlocking with UWB will work. “You can open your car door with your phone,” Chung said. “The door will unlock when you reach it – not sooner, not later.”
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In other words, if your phone is in your purse or pocket, you don’t have to take it out and tap the handle to get in. At the same time, you can be sure that your car will not be unlocked even when you are half a parking space away.
With the OS-level digital keys integration, you can share your key with friends and family when needed, and Chung pointed out that this applies to users of all phones “regardless of brand or platform”. That last point is huge and indicates an industry-wide shift towards common practices for this position, allowing it to reach more cars, more devices and ultimately more people.
Apple and Samsung just happen to be part of a body called the Car Connectivity Consortium, along with Hyundai, General Motors and Volkswagen, among other car makers. The consortium has developed a standard called Digital Key 3.0 which confirms the use of UWB, NFC and Bluetooth low energy for digital keys for all makes and models of gadgets and cars.
UWB chips can be found in a growing number of popular phones, including the iPhone 12 and iPhone 11 series and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, in addition to the already mentioned S21 series. However, NFC is still the basis for today’s digital keys, because UWB is still quite new in the scene.
BMW is one of the automakers leading the transition to UWB. It confirmed yesterday that the BMW iX will introduce next-generation key technology when it enters the market at the end of the year. According to the company, it is not only more convenient than NFC-based digital keys, but also more secure:
[UWB] is a short range, high bandwidth digital radio technology characterized by exceptionally accurate localization with the greatest possible security. The precision of UWB also ensures that relay attacks, where the radio signal is interrupted or intercepted, is not possible.
The promise of being able to use your phone as a car key has been a long time coming and for a lucky few it has already arrived. But now that the two largest phone makers in the world are fully on board, and car makers are working with them to set a common standard, it may finally catch on for the rest of us.