Tech, automobile companies join hands to let users unlock cars with phone

Many automobile and tech companies including rivals Apple and Samsung are joining hands to manufacture a technology that will let users unlock their cars with their smartphones.

Named ‘Car Connectivity Consortium’ (CCC), 70 tech companies and automakers are coming together to create a new ‘universal standard’ for digital car keys through which people can unlock cars with an app in their smartphone.

The group revealed its ‘Digital Key 1.0’ specification. The document has been named as a ‘standardised solution’ for replacing car keys with smartphone apps despite the phone or the vehicle manufacturer, according to Daily Mail.

Where modern cars such as Tesla Model 3 already let its owner to unlock the vehicle from their smartphone, the CCC aims to develop a standard model for vehicle-mobile connectivity via which the car owner can ‘download’ a digital copy of the key in their phones.

Users can soon unlock doors via their iPhones

CCC President Mahfuzur Rahman said, “I’m excited about the overwhelmingly positive response we’ve received from the industry to our standardised Digital Key solution.”

NFC chip or Bluetooth protocols can also help in enabling car users to unlock the vehicles placed in a close range. The digital key could be used for unlocking the vehicles without the need of a physical key. For the security purposes, the Digital Key uses a ‘Trusted Security Manager’ to provide end-to-end security of keys on every user’s device, wrote CNET.

The new feature will be available to any and all of the member companies including Samsung, Audi, General Motors, Volkswagen, BMW, LG Electronics, Panasonic and Hyundai, that will work together for launching the digital version of the car keys.

The digital car key will be able to do all of the same functions including allowing users to lock and unlock the doors and start the engine along with being shareable to other car users too. They digital key would have Bluetooth, NFC, and also GSMA. Car owners can also lend other smartphone owners the access to their vehicles via the app.

Head of Body Electronics at Audi, Ulf Warschat expressed, “We are proud to offer the Digital Key service to our customers already in a lot of model series. By standardising a Digital Key solution that complies with our security standards we lay the building blocks for innovative services on a broad basis.”

The CCC is also working on an updated ‘Digital Key 2.0’ set to release in early 2019.