Tech and Automobile Firms Come Together to Allow Users Unlock Their Cars with Phone

Many tech and automobile firms which includes the competitors like Apple and Samsung have joined hands for making a technology that would let users unlock their cars using their smartphones.

The technology referred to as the “Car Connectivity Consortium” (CCC) is being developed by seventy tech firms and automobile manufacturers who have come together to create a new “universal standard” for digital car keys via which people could unlock their vehicles with an application installed in their smartphones.

The group has unveiled the “Digital Key 1.0” specs. The document is named as a “standardised solution”—for providing a replacement to the car keys with smartphone app despite the automobile or smartphone manufacturer, as reported by Daily Mail.

Modern cars like Tesla Model 3 are already equipped with the technology and allows its owner to unlock the automobile from their phone, the CCC targets at developing a standard model for the vehicle-mobile connectivity through which the car owners could download a digital copy of the key in their respective phones.

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The President of CCC—Mahfuzur Rehman informed that he is excited regarding the amazingly positive response so far received from the industry regarding the standardised Digital Key solution.

Bluetooth protocols and NFC chip could also assist in providing the car users with the facility to unlock the vehicles parked in close proximity. The digital key could be used for unlocking the automobiles without the need for any physical key. For security concerns, the Digital Key incorporates the use of “Trusted Security Manager” for providing end-to-end security of keys on every car owner’s device, as written by CNET.

The new features would be available to all the members of the firms which includes Audi, BMW, Samsung, LG Electronics, General Motors, Panasonic, Volkswagen and Hyundai. They all would work together for launching the digital version of the car keys.

The digital car key would be able to perform all the same functions that a normal key performs including permitting users to lock and unlock the doors and start the engine, besides being shareable to other car users as well.

The digital key would have NFC, Bluetooth and GSMA.

Ulf Warschat—the Head of Body Electronics at Audi expressed that they are proud of offering the Digital Key service to the customers already in a lot of model series. He further said that by standardising a Digital Key solution that abides by the security protocols, the building blocks of creative services have been laid on an extensive basis.

The CCC is also working on an upgraded “Digital Key 2.0” which is expected to launch at the start of 2019.

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