Car Makers Now Have a Standard Smartphone ‘Digital Key’ for Vehicles

Is your mobile phone an Apple, Samsung, LG or any other major brand? And is your car a Toyota, Honda, or a BMW among many others? Then here’s good news for you: you can use your smartphone as your very own digital key–even if you switch car models or even car brands.

This gives you access to a virtual key that can unlock your car. What’s more, it allows you to start the engine and even share access to your car using other smart phone devices.

Thanks to Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC), major smartphone and car brands have joined forces to allow drivers “to transfer a digital key to a Trusted Service Manager (TSM) in their smart phone.”

According to CCC, it will use “the highest state-of-the-art security level” by using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. This system allows electronic devices to communicate with each other when brought within very close proximity of each other.

Currently, it’s under development among CCC’s charter member companies including (but not all) the following: “Apple, Audi, BMW, General Motors, HYUNDAI, LG Electronics, Samsung, and Volkswagen, and core members including ALPS ELECTRIC, Continental Automotive GmbH, DENSO, Gemalto, NXP, and Qualcomm Incorporated.”

“I’m excited by the overwhelmingly positive response we’ve received from the industry to our standardized Digital Key solution, with new members signing up to help drive adoption and specification development,” said Mahfuzur Rahman, president, CCC. “We’re already seeing products in the market that are leveraging Release 1.0, and I believe that the forthcoming Digital Key Release 2.0 will have an even bigger impact on the industry as we meet needs for massive scalability.”

Despite its revolutionary concept, digital car key services has been here for quite some time now, and can already be availed by the public. In fact, Volvo already offers this same concept technology, although it has limited reach with the public as of this time.