Volvo replaces the car key with the smartphone

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At Volvo, the cell phone becomes a car key

Volvo replaces the car key with the smartphone-volvo

The changing car key: If some manufacturers are increasingly turning them into a small computer, Volvo is almost immediately replacing it with a smartphone

Source: Volvo

In 2017, Volvo plans to launch the first completely keyless car that can be opened and started using a smartphone. What sounds comfortable is heavily criticized by IT experts.

VIt is well known that olvo does not have the worst ideas. One of the most important is likely to have been the patent for the three-point seat belt, which was filed in 1959. Now the Swedes want to be pioneers again, but this time it has nothing to do with security, more to do with comfort.

As the world’s first car manufacturer, Volvo wants to do without the car key. The role of Open Sesame should be played by the smartphone from 2017. Our multifunctional cell phones should then open and close the doors and even start the engine via an app and with the help of Bluetooth.

Volvo presented the new technology at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the Ericsson booth; a first pilot test is scheduled to start this spring in the Gothenburg area.

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Last year alone, 150 Range Rovers were stolen in Germany – making it the most stolen car. While luxury brand owners have to worry, there are also models that are less sought after. Source: The World

The mechanical key, which is only used to unlock the car and start the car – something like this is actually only available in older cars or in extremely cheap new cars. Radio remote controls have long been the norm, even for small cars.

By pressing the "On" or "Off" button, the car is closed or unlocked by radio. This acknowledges the process nicely with a brief flicker of the turn signals.

Anyone who can afford keyless go-and-start systems (so-called keyless go-and-start systems) starts the engine like only sports car drivers once did by pressing the start button. Even to unlock the vehicle, there is no need to press the button on the remote control.

With manufacturers like Audi, you don’t even have to press the remote control because the system recognizes that you have the key with you: as soon as you touch the door handle, the car opens, and to lock it, you just gently stroke the handle.

Open the car with a bracelet

And anyone who comes to the car with bulging shopping bags and doesn’t have a free hand for the remote control button will be helped too. With a hint of a kick, the tailgate opens automatically on BMW or Ford, for example, as if by magic. The key can remain in your pocket during all of these maneuvers.

Because the remote controls of many brands are currently more bulky than slimmer, Jaguar, for example, has even developed a bracelet for the new F-Pace. You can tie it around while jogging or swimming, for example. When the training session is over, the car can be opened with the strap in the same way as with the actual key that you have left in the car.

Volvo now wants to go one step further and is presenting a solution in which the owner’s smartphone takes on the role of the car key via an app. If the Bluetooth function is activated, you can not only open and close the car doors with the mobile phone, but also start the engine.

From the die-cut model to the high-tech hand flatterer

Volvo replaces the car key with the smartphone-smartphone

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Has it had its day? No, only the old, stamped models of the car key have become rare. For example at BMW has its future …

Source: Getty Images

Volvo replaces the car key with the smartphone-die-cut model high-tech hand flatterer

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… already started. The Munich manufacturer has built a display into the key of the new 7 Series. With its help, for example, the automatic parking process can be monitored,… which in the brand flagship can also be started from outside the car. Car keys are becoming more and more similar in function and design to smartphones. But they also serve …

Source: BMW Group

Volvo replaces the car key with the smartphone-die-cut model high-tech hand flatterer

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… the social trend towards individualization. The key of the Fiat 500 can be ordered in numerous variants. Another example …

Source: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Volvo replaces the car key with the smartphone-die-cut model high-tech hand flatterer

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… is the choice of car keys at Volvo. This shows how the small but important accessory component could continue to change in the future …

Source: Continental

Volvo replaces the car key with the smartphone-Exemplary driving brings discount insurance

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… Design sketch by the supplier Continental, who is also researching and developing the "intelligence" of the car key. Other brands, such as the supercar maker Pagani…, have long since made the key a super expensive piece of jewelry.

Source: Continental

As demonstrated in a short video, According to Volvo, the whole thing should be particularly interesting when, for example, the family man is on a business trip by plane and he would like to leave his car to another family member during this time.

Instead of handing over the radio remote control, it is sufficient to transfer the access authorization to the wife or daughter via smartphone. At the same time, more than one “key” can be stored in each app, which means different Volvo models all over the world.

The latter function could save time and stress, especially in the car sharing and rental car business. Anyone traveling for business or pleasure can book and pay for a Volvo in advance using the app.

Security gap discovered at BMW

Upon arrival, the digital vehicle key is already stored in the system so that the smartphone user can go straight to the parking lot. Annoying waiting times at the rental car counter or looking for a rental car somewhere on a huge parking deck would be a thing of the past. And how to get to the parking space of the model, the app shows with the help of the GPS system.

Volvo wants to test keyless driving in a pilot program at its headquarters in Gothenburg from next spring, and the Swedes are already announcing the first series applications for 2017. According to Michael Schweitzer, spokesman for Volvo Germany, other scenarios are conceivable with the new system. For example, a parcel delivery service can be given one-time authorization via smartphone app to open the trunk (and not the doors) in order to put the goods ordered there.

Paravan makes people with disabilities mobile

Volvo replaces the car key with the smartphone-replaces

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Janis McDavid was born with no arms or legs. Even as a child he dreams of moving freely. The man who makes such dreams come true, …

Source: Heinz Heiss

Volvo replaces the car key with the smartphone-replaces

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… is called Ronald Arnold and comes from Pfronstatten-Aichelau in the Swabian Alb. Almost 20 years ago, he founded the Paravan company there, which focused on the handicapped-accessible conversion of v…specializes in vehicles. The company premises …

Source: Heinz Heiss

Volvo replaces the car key with the smartphone-smartphone

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… He jokingly describes it as "VEB Vereinigte Huttenwerke". The mayor of the 300-strong village had to designate a special industrial area for this. The meanwhile 150 employees…he …

Source: Heinz Heiss

Volvo replaces the car key with the smartphone-Exemplary driving brings discount insurance

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… develop the right solution for almost every body and disease picture. The spectrum …

Source: Heinz Heiss

Volvo replaces the car key with the smartphone-Exemplary driving brings discount insurance

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… ranges from simple steering assistance to satellite controls and lift systems to complete conversions. If you have to, …

Source: Heinz Heiss

Volvo replaces the car key with the smartphone-replaces

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… Paravan employees dissect the original models down to the skeleton. Basis for most conversions …

Source: Heinz Heiss

Volvo replaces the car key with the smartphone-die-cut model high-tech hand flatterer

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… is the so-called space drive, little more than a simple circuit board that is implanted in the nervous system of the car and …

Source: Heinz Heiss

Volvo replaces the car key with the smartphone-replaces

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… enables electronic control of all vehicle functions – without any mechanical connection.

Source: Heinz Heiss

Volvo replaces the car key with the smartphone-replaces

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The Association of Disabled Car Owners estimates that a maximum of 150,000 vehicles with specific handicaps are on Germany’s roads. The conversions are, however…s seldom as elaborate as Janis McDavid’s Sprinter.

Source: Heinz Heiss

While Volvo is praising the new digital key world, the ADAC sees a security risk. At the beginning of 2015, the car club had revealed that a security expert had hacked BMW’s Connected Drive online system using a mobile phone app.

Within a few minutes, with very manageable equipment and on a busy street, the vehicles could be unlocked without being noticed. BMW had to admit the security gap, theoretically 2.2 million vehicles would have been potential theft. In the meantime, that should no longer be possible.

“The ADAC calls on the automobile manufacturers to protect computer technology in the car against manipulation or other illegal access. This protection must be based on standards that are customary in other branches of the economy, for example in the IT sector. In addition, this protection must be confirmed by a neutral body, for example the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) in Bonn, ”demands ADAC spokesman Christian Buric.

In a spectacular test with ten Keyless Go models from different brands at the beginning of 2016, “Auto Bild” also uncovered security gaps. To do this, the editorial team used radio range extenders that are otherwise only used by secret services. In more than 100 cases, according to "Auto Bild", criminals have managed to use such devices to open and steal vehicles equipped with keyless entry in less than 30 seconds.

Exemplary driving brings a discount on car insurance

If you behave in an exemplary manner at the wheel, you will soon be offered a discount on your car insurance. To do this, however, the driver has to be monitored by a black box. Not everyone is enthusiastic about the idea. Source: The World

To do this, they intercepted the radio signals between the car and the key, which normally only reached a few meters, and amplified them. Tricks to minimize the risk were recommended to concerned car owners: “Put the car keys in a metal cookie jar or in the refrigerator or wrap them in aluminum foil – then the signal cannot be intercepted. But it’s best not to order a Keyless Go at the moment. "

Michael Schweitzer from Volvo Germany sees this as less dramatic: “These burglaries only succeed if, for example, the car is in front of the house instead of in the garage or the key is stored a maximum of one meter behind the front door. If the distance is greater or if there is a partition in between, such a radio amplifier is also ineffective. "

In general, he considers the security of the new Volvo system to be as high as that of today’s keyless go systems. When trying to couple two Bluetooth signals, the other side must always confirm the contact with a PIN. “But”, says Schweitzer, “they even got into the Pentagon. Anyone who wants to get in somewhere can do it. "

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