Apple is behind, and Samsung too… Hyundai puts a smartphone’digital key’

On the 15th, Prof. Jeong Hae-yoon of Samsung Electronics’ Wireless Business Department is introducing Genesis (red box) with Audi, BMW, and Ford as the first partners of Samsung Digital Key. [사진 삼성 갤럭시언팩 2021 영상 캡처]

While Samsung Electronics was announcing the new Galaxy S21 on the 15th, the name’Genesis’ appeared in surprise. ““We will add digital key functions to the Galaxy from this August.” Together with Audi, BMW and Ford, they introduced Genesis as their first partner. ‘It symbolically represents the trend of’electronic equipment in automobiles’.

The digital key is a function that allows you to start the engine and even drive with a smartphone without a physical key. When you hold your smartphone on the door of a vehicle, the door opens by itself. Apple first announced the same function under the name’Kha Key’ at the Apple Developers Contest (WWDC) in June, ahead of Samsung. The keys of BMW’s midsize sedan 5 series were digitally mounted in the iPhone’s’Wallet’ app.
Hyundai Motor Company will also unveil digital key functions for iPhone (iOS) in a similar manner to BMW within this year. B3 page>This is because Hyundai Motor Company recently acquired some APIs related to digital keys from Apple. API is a computer command system that connects the OS and applications (apps), and because Apple places great emphasis on security, API access is in principle denied unless there is a special case.
In fact, Hyundai Motor Company developed an app called “Hyundai Digital Key” in 2019 for other smartphones other than the iPhone and provided it to users. This is because Google, which developed the Android operating system (OS), has adopted an open API policy. In addition to Hyundai, Kia Digital Key and Genesis Digital Key can be downloaded from the Google Play Store for Hyundai-based models. Starting with the new Sonata, it has been applied to about 130,000 Hyundai-affiliated vehicles (Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis).

Hyundai’s latest vehicle, iPhone is expected to replace’khaki’

Before the digital key, it was impossible to drive only with a smartphone even with the vehicle control app (Blue Link, Reservation) provided by Hyundai and Kia respectively. Digital keys differ from these vehicle control apps in that they completely replace existing car keys. If you want, you can share it with people who are far away.

An official from Hyundai Motor said, “The digital key is being developed in accordance with the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) standard.” CCC is an international association that sets technical standards that enable ▶locking and unlocking vehicles, starting engines, and sharing remote keys with smartphones and smartwatches. About 120 companies are participating, including not only Hyundai Motor, but also telecommunications companies such as SK Telecom and Deutsche Telecom, and mobile companies such as Apple and Samsung Electronics.

Combining the latest wireless technologies such as UWB into automobiles

In the case of Samsung Electronics, it has decided to apply the latest wireless communication technology, Ultra wide band (UWB) to digital keys. UWB is known to have much higher distance and direction accuracy compared to existing Bluetooth or Near Field Communication (NFC). In fact, Samsung Electronics introduced the’Find My Car’ function using UWB in Galaxy Unpack on this day. (See photo below)

Apple also added UWB technology to BMW’s electric car iX. With the so-called’Digital Key Plus’, the door opens by itself even if you put the iPhone in your pocket or bag without putting your smartphone on the car door handle.

Reporter Kim Young-min [email protected]