DIGITAL CAR KEYS

Car keys now may be the next to go as the technology is pushing its way into our day-to-day lives. From the next year, the car manufacturer ‘Volvo’ is going to offer a smartphone application instead of the physical car keys to lock & unlock the car doors and also to start the engine. This new offering will now use the Bluetooth enabled digital key technology and acknowledge the popularity of the smartphones & the relevance of them in day-to-day life, as said by Volvo.

Seven out of ten i.e. 70 percent of the Kiwis now have a smartphone. It is a figure which has doubled in the last three years & 91 percent of these people utilize their device every day, according to the figures of Research New Zealand for the year 2015.

A widespread reliance on the smartphones for day-to-day tasks has led Volvo to be the world’s first ever car manufacturer who offers a key-less car which will give drivers a number of options & flexibility in using their vehicles as said by the company in a statement.

Volvo clients will now be able to access their car without carrying around the keys & will be able to get more than one digital key in their smartphone application, permitting them to use different Volvo cars in the different locations. Using the app, people can potentially book & pay for the rental car at any place in the whole world & have the digital car key delivered to the phone immediately as added by Volvo.

The company says that the customers will then be able to simply spot the rental car through GPS, unlock it & drive away all with the smartphone, thus avoiding the long queues at the airport, railway station or the car rental desks. Users will then be able to give their digital key to the other people through their mobile phones, thus eliminating the necessity to cut the extra keys or do some physical handover.

Coby Duggan who is the National Manager of Volvo New Zealand says that they believe that the new technology will make their customer’s lives easier & will save their time which is what these digital keys will be capable of doing. Mobility needs are evolving & so are our customer’s expectations to access cars in an uncomplicated way. This innovative digital key technology will have the potential to fully change how a Volvo can be used & shared. Physical keys will still be offered to the people who want them.