BMW to Launch Ultra Wideband Version of Apple’s Car Key Feature by Early Next Year

BMW on weekday proclaimed plans to update its Apple CarKey-compatible Digital Key protocol with a safer version that depends on Ultra-Wideband radio technology, permitting users to interchange physical key fobs with a compatible iPhone.

Dubbed Digital Key and, the new technology enables users to unlock and begin their automotive while not taking the iPhone out of a bag or pocket. that’s Associate in Nursing improvement over the present BMW Digital Key, which needs users to carry iPhone up to a door handle to achieve entry and later place the device in an exceedingly provided Qi-enabled smartphone receptacle to start out the vehicle.

Developed in partnership with Apple, BMW Digital Key and integrates with Apple’s CarKey API and depends on UWB’s security backbone and high exactitude to thwart breaches like relay attacks that commit to jam or intercept digital key signals.

BMW expects to roll out the new technology with the iX, Associate in Nursing all-electric “Sports Activity Vehicle” slated to hit European dealerships at the tip of 2021 and North Yankee showrooms in 2021.

The coming BMW implementation seems to be a variant of Digital Key unleash three.0, which faucets Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and UWB technology to deliver passive location-aware keyless access. In its promulgation, BMW says it’s been operating with Apple and therefore the automotive property syndicate (CCC) to ascertain Digital Key unleash three.0 as a worldwide customary for the automotive business.

Apple introduced UWB to its line of products with the U1 chip in iPhone 11 and later designed the atomic number 14 into the iPhone 12 and Apple Watch Series 6 series in 2020. Rumors recommend Apple plans to supply the location-aware give alternative product lines including iPad and AirPods, although the rumblings have however involved fruit.

In connected news, Hyundai is alleged to be operating toward compatibility with Apple’s CarKey and will unleash a digital key designed on the API this year, reports Business Korea. Details area unit scarce, however, the system seems to be supported existing technology already in use by BMW, which means it’ll not support options afforded by UWB.

Hyundai is also negotiating a partnership to develop and manufacture a questionable “Apple automotive.” The South Korean maker last week confirmed it’s in early-stage talks with Apple over the project, with reports suggesting the vehicle might be made at Hyundai’s U.S. plants in 2024.

Ultra-Wideband may be a short-range, high-bandwidth wireless communication protocol with precise abstraction awareness, which means that the Associate in Nursing iPhone can solely get to be within the section of the vehicle so as to unlock and begin it. BMW says radical Wideband’s exactitude conjointly ensures that replay attacks, wherever the radio radiation is packed or intercepted, aren’t attainable.

Apple started rolling out radical band support to a number of its devices in 2019 with the U1 give iPhone eleven models, followed by iPhone twelve models last year. Apple Watch Series six models are equipped with a U1 chip, and as long as Apple’s automotive key feature is accessible on watchOS six.2.8 and later, BMW’s Digital Key and feature may touch the Apple Watch.