digitalkey
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'Digital Key' standard uses your phone to unlock your car
You can already use your smartphone as a car key if you own the right vehicle (just ask Tesla Model 3 owners). There hasn't really been a common standard for it, though, and that has hurt adoption -- you can't guarantee that you'll have phone access if you switch brands, or even individual models. You might soon have a solution. The Car Connectivity Consortium, a mix of major smartphone and automotive brands, has posted a Digital Key 1.0 standard (PDF) that will let you download (what else?) a virtual key that can unlock your vehicle, start the engine and even share access with other drivers.
Volvo will (kinda) let drivers ditch car keys for phones
From 2017, Volvo will offer its customers the option to ditch keys and buy a car that's only unlocked with your smartphone. The firm is piloting the technology for the rest of this year with car-sharing outlet Sunfleet, based in Sweden. Subsequently, a limited number of retail vehicles will be given the Tesla-like ability to have smartphone-only access as well as remote start. Since access to the ride will be entirely app-based, users will be able to swap digital keys with other people or simply add a rental car to their device's list of trusted cars.
