The Future Of Key­less Technology

From the hum­ble car key to key­less start tech­nol­o­gy, the advance­ments are ever-expanding. 

In 2016 we saw BMW intro­duce mod­ern dis­plays on the dash­board of the vehi­cle, allow­ing the dri­ver to lock and unlock the doors from 1000ft away. This devel­op­ment also allowed the dri­ver to open the boot and park the car using only the touch­screen on the dash­board. Addi­tion­al fea­tures were added to the touch­screen, such as set­ting cli­mate con­trol, dis­play­ing which lights are being used, whether the doors are locked, and dis­play­ing the fuel level. 

Sub­se­quent­ly, in 2018, Tes­la inno­vat­ed the use of a smart­phone app that mim­ics a prox­im­i­ty key. They also includ­ed a back up to this tech­nol­o­gy if the bat­tery on your phone runs out; the dri­ver is then able to use a cred­it card style key to access and dri­ve the car. Fea­tures avail­able to the dri­ver are start­ing the engine, unlock­ing the doors and mon­i­tor­ing the battery. 

Oth­er car man­u­fac­tur­ers are now imple­ment­ing mobile apps, includ­ing Gen­er­al Motors, Vol­vo and oth­ers. With so many man­u­fac­tur­ers offer­ing this fea­ture, who’s to say it won’t become the norm. We could be see­ing the shift from the stan­dard met­al shaft to a dig­i­tal alternative. 

Despite the advances, it will be a while, if ever, before mobile apps entire­ly replace the phys­i­cal key. There are many scep­tics out there, rais­ing issues such as poor net­works, bat­tery usage of the phone, dig­i­tal secu­ri­ty and much more.