Most of the time you don`t know where your car keys are. Womens usually loose them in their bag. Keyless is a good solution, but not every car is equipped with such a system, which can also be expensive and not offered as standard.
Volvo wants to change this and plans to become the world’s first car manufacturer to offer cars without keys from 2017.
Volvo customers will be offered an application for their mobile phones to replace the physical key with a digital key. The innovative Bluetooth-enabled digital key technology will offer Volvo customers new ways to use and share cars.
The new Volvo app enables the digital key on the customer’s mobile 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 receive more than one digital key on their app, allowing them to access different Volvo cars in different locations, For example, 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. On arrival, a customer could simply locate the rental car via GPS, unlock it and drive away.
Volvo owners will be able to send their digital key to other people via their mobile phones so they can also use the car. This may be to family members, friends or co-workers in a company.
Volvo will pilot this technology in spring 2016 via its car-sharing firm Sunfleet, stationed at Gothenburg airport, Sweden. A limited number of commercially available cars will be equipped with the new digital key technology in 2017. Physical keys will continue to be offered for people who want them.
