Johannesburg - Just when you thought there was a smartphone app for everything, now there’s one will lock and unlock your car.
Volvo plans to become the world's first car manufacturer to offer cars without keys from 2017. Customers of the Swedish brand will be offered an application on their smartphones to replace the physical key with a digital one.
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The innovative Bluetooth-based digital key technology will offer Volvo customers far more flexibility, enabling them to benefit from entirely new ways to use and share cars.
The new Volvo app enables the digital key on the phone to do everything a physical key currently does, such as locking or unlocking the doors or the boot and allowing the engine to be started.
This new technology will also offer customers the possibility to store more than one digital key on their app allowing them to access different Volvo cars in different locations, according to their changing mobility needs.
Using the app, people could potentially book and pay for a rental car anywhere in the world and have the digital car key delivered to their phone immediately.
CAR-SHARING MADE SIMPLE
On arrival, the customer could simply locate the rental car via GPS, unlock it and drive away, avoiding those frustrating queues at airport or train station car rental kiosks.
Volvo’s digital key means that sharing a car with a family member or co-worker becomes more simple and convenient. Owners will be able to send their digital key to other people via their mobile phones so that they can also use the car.
Physical keys will continue to be offered for people who want them.
Volvo says the technology cannot be remote-jammed like cars with regular central locking, which operates on a radio frequency.
“The connection between car and digital key is via a secure Bluetooth connection which is unique to the device,” said a Volvo South Africa spokesman. “This is not ‘hackable’ like traditional RF signals.
“Similar to the traditional keyless technology a Volvo driver needs to be very close to the doors or the boot to be able to unlock the car.”
Star Motoring