Phone as Key is coming - found option called ‘Digital key’ in PCM

[MatC21]

There are two levels of Apple Car Key.
The basic support requires the phone to be touched to the door handle and the phone to be on the middle console for driving. That's what some older BMW models have. This is using NFC.
There is a 2nd generation which works with UWB that works like the regular key fob and means you can leave your phone in your pocket. This is what some newer BMW models have.

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[Lucas Chen]

yeah I don't think this North America - yet…only other regions.

Just found an option called ‘Digital key’ while scouting the PCM for changing the country.

did you do any OTA or any other thing from your dealer?

 

[nulled]

did you do any OTA or any other thing from your dealer?

No OTA or dealer updates. They might be changing things without updating the OS itself. It seems that every part of the OS is running as an app, so they could be tweaking things all the time.

 

[tolsen]

No OTA or dealer updates. They might be changing things without updating the OS itself. It seems that every part of the OS is running as an app, so they could be tweaking things all the time.

sounds reasonable i was checking out available apps yesterday and noticed tidal, a music streaming app, that wasn’t there several weeks ago. i also noticed the digital key app. looks like they are pushing new apps and app updates to the cars. lets hope the next step is an update to the phone app that includes the digital key support

 

[nulled]

sounds reasonable i was checking out available apps yesterday and noticed tidal, a music streaming app, that wasn’t there several weeks ago. i also noticed the digital key app. looks like they are pushing new apps and app updates to the cars. lets hope the next step is an update to the phone app that includes the digital key support

I think their marketing/PR team must be sleeping… Each thing you mentioned could have been a separate press release. Tesla used to make big noise from launching Apple Music, Tidal, etc.

 

[anders1]

Agree. Ultrawideband has a longer reach. NFC just a few centimetres. So for a practical point of view UWB is the most likely choice

 

[krissrock]

does android have a comparable app?
you think they would launch a car feature that only works a subset of their audience?

 

[Dragon Tourniquet]

does android have a comparable app?
you think they would launch a car feature that only works a subset of their audience?

When the BMW iX launched, initially phone as key was only available on the iPhone. The main reason is because there is a single API to target all the iOS users, but Android has different APIs for different manufacturers. Eventually support came to Android platforms, one manufacturer at a time. I wouldn't be shocked if Porsche and Audi do the same thing.

 

[Petzi]

When the BMW iX launched, initially phone as key was only available on the iPhone. The main reason is because there is a single API to target all the iOS users, but Android has different APIs for different manufacturers. Eventually support came to Android platforms, one manufacturer at a time. I wouldn't be shocked if Porsche and Audi do the same thing.

dont you think that car key on android is a security risk?

 

[Dragon Tourniquet]

dont you think that car key on android is a security risk?

I don't actually know Android well enough to say, as I'm an iOS user (and sometimes developer). But from a dev perspective, the fact that it is different APIs for the different wallets and UWB chips is a problem. Fragmentation makes it less worth doing.

 

[daveo4EV]

dont you think that car key on android is a security risk?

with "baseline" being existing FOB's and their wireless design/communication/protocols - it's hard to imagine iOS/Andriod being "less" secure than any existing physical FOB's

also asking what is or is not secure with out identifying the "attack vector" you're defending against is also a bit of a fools errand…

these days for me personally the biggest attack vector for all of this stuff is "radio frequency band relay attacks" - i.e your car in the drive way and your key inside your home - the bad-actors deploy radio boosters to "relay" your FOB's radio signal to the vehicle's proximity to fool the car into thinking the key is "near by"…and then start the car and drive off…this one is hard to defend against and the only effective solution is to store your keys inside your home in a radio blocking container so that there is no radio signal to amplify/boost…

having reviewed the BMW/Apple "phoneaskey" design phone-as-key is vastly more secure against most attacks vectors than _ANY_ existing FOB - so phone-as-key is not likely to be the weak link in all this - the Android stuff while fragmented due to API disparities is also unlikey (impossible?) to be worse than a FOB and I would suggest if it's not as secure as iOS it's close enough as to not mattter…again vs. a FOB these phone based implementations are much much more secure, and more importantly more actively developed, patched, and modified on a continuous basis…

but bad actors are always working against the systems, and it's always an arm's race…

 

[Petzi]

with "baseline" being existing FOB's and their wireless design/communication/protocols - it's hard to imagine iOS/Andriod being "less" secure than any existing physical FOB's

also asking what is or is not secure with out identifying the "attack vector" you're defending against is also a bit of a fools errand…

these days for me personally the biggest attack vector for all of this stuff is "radio frequency band relay attacks" - i.e your car in the drive way and your key inside your home - the bad-actors deploy radio boosters to "relay" your FOB's radio signal to the vehicle's proximity to fool the car into thinking the key is "near by"…and then start the car and drive off…this one is hard to defend against and the only effective solution is to store your keys inside your home in a radio blocking container so that there is no radio signal to amplify/boost…

having reviewed the BMW/Apple "phoneaskey" design it's vastly more secure against most attacks vectors than _ANY_ exsisting FOB - so it's not the weak link in all this - the Android stuff while fragmented due to API disparities is also unlikey (impossible?) to be worse than a FOB and I would suggest if it's not as secure as iOS it's close enough as to not mattter…again vs. a FOB these phone based implementations are much much more secure, and more importantly more actively developed, patched, and modified on a continuous basis…

but bad actors are always working against the systems, and it's always an arm's race…

you are right

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