What do you mean by "presented" ? One of the slight anoying downsides is PAAK (at least on the BMW and same on a Rivian Im told) works from like up to 8 feet away. Even through walls. So anytime I walk past my garage or driveway it unlocks the BMW if Im wearing an Apple Watch or have a iPhone in my pocket.this is _NOT_ definitive - but it _IS_ indicativeā¦
background: when you present a modern iPhone/iOS to a device that supports/enabled NFC the appleWallet will appear because the NFC wireless in the phone "wakes up" and launches the AppleWallet (or other NFC app)ā¦
therefore a rudimentary test of "does this thing do NFC" is to present your phone to the potential NFC reader and see if it wakes upā¦
so I did the following testā¦
I presented my phone to my neighbors 2025 BMW X5 hybrid (which does support apple car key) - and my iPhone "woke up" and initiated NFC activities - but it did not unlock the BMW because, well my neighbor doesn't trust me with his car keys - go figure -
I presented my phone to my 2024 Macan Turbo EV w/comfort access - my phone remained idle/offline/dark/asleep - it did not indicate or detect any NFC radio waves from the door handles of my 2024 Macan Turbo EVā¦
now I realize this is not definitive as a test - because Porsche may have the hardware present but disabledā¦
but for what it's worth my simplistic "NFC detector" does not trigger when presented to my 2024 Macan Turbo EVā¦
YMMVā¦we'll have to await more details from Porsche as to when/how this feature will be supported.
I welcome any factual data.
I have a 21 MME and use PAAK exclusively. That being said, if my phone is in my back pocket when I approach the car it can be hit or miss if it connects. Phone in hand is usually not an issue.
| Technology | Required? | What It Enables |
| NFC (Near Field Communication) | Yes (minimum requirement) | Tap your iPhone or Apple Watch near the carās door handle to unlock/start the car |
| UWB (Ultra-Wideband) | Optional (but recommended) | Enables hands-free unlocking and enhanced spatial awareness (e.g., unlock just by walking up to the car with your iPhone in your pocket) |
| WCH-304 | |
|---|---|
| Wireless charging | |
| 127.55 kHz | |
| 13.56 MHz | |
| 15 W |
NFC is not required for CarKey. At all. It's available as a fallback implementation in the event that your phone battery has been dead for over 5 hours (the reserve time for BLE to continue to work after the phone shuts off).
That may or may not be true, as one of the requirements COULD be that the transponders in the car be certified by Apple. This turned out to be the case for TouchPoint (the hotel / business lock equivalent to Home Key / Car Key), and is why Ubiquity had to release new hardware to add support for it. Since the docs for getting the Car Key entitlement from Apple in the MFi program are confidential and not available to the general public, we don't know if such a requirement is in them.
The UWB requirements have been posted since 2021. The hardware certification is not Apple's. It's Car Connectivity Consortium's Digital Key Release 3.0 or higher. This hardware is in the Macan. It is a published standard.
That's NFC, not UWB.
I understand that, however just because Apple uses a standard doesn't mean they don't tack on extra requirements (ex: they used to have MFi certification requirements for anything to connect via the USB ports on iPhones).
Well aware of that, but again, Apple has in the past tacked on extra requirements before they will allow iOS to use something, and in this case you have to sign a confidentiality agreement to get the API documentation and iOS entitlement allowing use of Car Key. That agreement is ONLY available to auto makers. We don't know what is in that agreement, which may or may not include extra hardware requirements. If you worked for one of the auto makers that signed the agreement and are sharing what is in it, thank you, but you are violating that NDA and could be subject to massive penalties / litigation.
Apple is a member of CCC, along with Porsche. The whole point of creating the CCC standard is to avoid this fracturing of hardware requirements.
I am not violating any NDA. Again, the CCC standard is published. You can get your hands on it yourself very easily and legally by becoming a member.
The CCC standard is published. The MFi agreements and APIs for iOS are not. That is where any extras would come in (which Apple has done in the past with USB, even though they were part of the USB Implementers Forum). Without complying with Apple's requirements you can't get them to issue you an entitlement for your iOS app to allow it to use Car Key functionality.
MFi accessory certification does not have any special hardware requirements for CarKey. I am not sure what you're basing all this on, as there is no Apple-specific hardware requirement for CarKey beyond CCC compliance.
My point is we DO NOT KNOW what Apple requires. You can state there aren't extra requirements (such as specific models of NFC or UWB hardware, or paying Apple a fee per vehicle as part of the MFi program, similar to TouchPass or Home Key), but without access to the agreements to get the entitlement for the iOS app, we have no way to know.
It will have UWB, it helps to secure the car / key signal against being hijacked by signal relays, so is a security measure. In the UK, as āprestige manufacturersā adopted it (particularly Range Rover) it was so successful the thieves switched to using the Can Bus hijack instead.
