A leaked Tesla FCC document shared by The edge suggests that the next Tesla cars will support Ultra Wideband, a technology built into the latest iPhones and vehicles, enabling greater accuracy when unlocking a car with a smartphone.
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Tesla submitted documentation in September about new key fobs, a controller, and endpoints that would be installed in a vehicle’s frame and cabin, some of which support Ultra Wideband communications. Tesla uses a standards-based implementation of Ultra Wideband, so it should be compatible with the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 models that support the technology should it eventually make it into Tesla vehicles.
Apple’s iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 devices are equipped with a U1 chip that supports Ultra Wideband technology for enhanced spatial awareness and indoor location detection. Apple has compared Ultra Wideband to “living room-scale GPS,” and it’s designed for accurate close-up tracking.
Right now, Apple is using the U1 chip for a directional AirDrop function and to communicate with the U1-equipped HomePod mini to transfer songs, but it doesn’t do much else. In the future, Apple is expected to use the U1 chip for AirTags, and it also has applications such as integration with vehicles.
There’s no explicit word that Tesla’s Ultra Wideband implementation will work with the iPhone, but Tesla already has an iPhone app that will allow Tesla owners to lock and unlock their cars, among other features. According to the FCC document, Tesla’s Ultra Wideband feature will more accurately determine how far a person is from their car for unlocking and activation purposes, and Tesla describes it as more secure.
Future Tesla vehicles will include several Ultra Wideband endpoints in the vehicle for proper location triangulation and to determine whether a person is inside or outside the car, and they will likely be able to communicate with Apple’s iPhones.
Other automakers are also working on Ultra Wideband technology that will work with the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 models. In January, BMW said it is working on Digital Key Plus, a new Ultra Wideband version of the Apple Car Keys feature that allows drivers to unlock and start their car without taking their iPhone tas out of their pocket or purse.
BMW’s Ultra Wideband technology will be built into the iX electric vehicle which will be launched in Europe in late 2021 and North America in early 2022.