PETALING JAYA: Could car keys and fobs become a thing of the past? It looks that way going by the report from auto website carmagazine.co.uk.
BMW is reportedly working with Apple to develop CarKey which lets iPhone users unlock and start their car.
This was suggested by Apple fan site 9to5Mac.com, which claimed it had discovered this new feature through an early iOS 14 code and that BMW is the most likely candidate since it did not deny or confirm the collaboration.
The idea is interesting as the phone will be an actual key fob by allowing you to lock, unlock and start the car.
It will also sync wirelessly with Apple CarPlay and act as a media hub.
By the way, BMW is a high-profile member of the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) and is working to create a new industry standard on digital key features between vehicles and connected devices.
As such, the evidence from the CCC suggests that the technology used for the vehicle and device to communicate is the Digital Key v3.0 which will harness Near Field Communication (NFC).
Only time will tell if the latest iPhone will be equipped with this feature. But it doesn’t sound all that surprising, does it?
