The automotive industry is currently witnessing a lot of changes and challenges, spearheaded by innovative start-ups who are enabling newer digitalized business models, in conjunction with the „connected car“. This is forcing the established players to transition from traditional car manufacturers to as-a-service players.
As a result we´ve faced a strong shift in our projects from “classical topics” (turbo chargers, cable protection, interior parts, SCR), to “digital topics” within the last years. Digital Keys was one of these customer projects, that we internally discussed intensively with seeing the advantages on the one hand but the question on the other:
Do we feel comfortable with opening our car keyless? Our focus of the analysis was on keyless door access technology for in-vehicle delivery.
What are the advantages of Digital Keys?
Keyless car access or access via digital keys is chiefly aimed at eliminating the disadvantages of using physical keys, which are not flexibly transferable and prone to getting lost. Digital Keys are reinventing business models and enable the car owners to profit from use cases such as car sharing which increases asset utilization.
This is highly relevant in both, the B2B and B2C segments.
How do they work?
Digital keys are relayed by the smartphone using Bluetooth, LTE, or NFC to telematic boxes installed in the car, connected to the central locking system and the immobilizer. Generation and transfer of the keys needs to be powerfully encrypted to prevent unauthorized access. A common obstacle is that the service providers need to have approvals to read CAN data to verify the state of the door security.
Conclusion
From a personal perspective: Since starting the car by pressing the “Start Button”, instead of using the key, I am still figuring out the perfect place for my keys and Digital Keys would be the logical next step.
From a business perspective: Is there any other option than Digital Keys? As mentioned above many upcoming business models and solutions need Digital Keys. So it´s only a matter of time till Digitalization will take the next step.
