The Apple-led Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) today announced that its Digital Key Release 3.0 White Paper – The Future of Vehicle Access – is now available for download. The white paper offers compelling descriptions of the many end-user benefits that vehicle and consumer electronics manufacturers can offer with solutions based on the CCC Digital Key Release 3.0 Specification.
The CCC is a cross-industry organization advancing technologies for smartphone-to-car connectivity solutions. The CCC represents a large portion of the global automotive and smartphone industries, with more than one hundred member companies. The CCC member companies consisting of smartphone and vehicle manufacturers, automotive tier-1 suppliers, silicon/chip vendors, security product suppliers, and more. The Board of Directors of CCC includes individuals from charter member companies Apple, BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, LG, Panasonic, Samsung and Volkswagen.
Through the use of Ultra-Wideband (UWB) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connectivity, the CCC Digital Key Release 3.0 adds capabilities to enable hands-free passive entry and engine start from a compatible mobile device. Unlike conventional keys or key fobs, there is no need to pass anything physical to a friend or family member in order to utilize these features. Their compatible device is enabled through secure, standardized server-to-server interfaces to transfer these rights between devices, always under the control of the owner.
CCC’s Digital Key is a standardized technology that enables mobile devices to store, authenticate, and share digital keys for vehicles in a secure, privacy-preserving way that works everywhere. The specification was developed by CCC members, a world-class team of technologists from companies dedicated to building products focusing on consumers’ desire for security and privacy while increasing convenience features for their vehicles. The white paper provides feature details and describes how they were implemented by the diverse team within the CCC.
“The CCC brings together an incredibly unique group of like-minded companies, many of which are natural competitors, in order to deliver a universal digital key capability to the world’s transportation industry,” said Daniel Knobloch, president, CCC, in a statement. “The strength of this digital key ecosystem rests with our member companies who are sustaining and advancing this interoperable digital key for the future of mobility. I’m confident of their commitment to our mission.”
The CCC published its Digital Key white paper for the industry and consumers to learn more about how these features are enabled, transferred and revoked. In addition, the white paper delves into the underlying system architecture of the digital key ecosystem, showing a planned mix of standardized and proprietary communication links.
The white paper highlights innovative use cases including:
• Hands-free vehicle access (UWB in combination with BLE)
• Digital key sharing
• Digital key termination and suspension
Standardizing the essential elements ensures universal interoperability between vehicle and consumer device OEMs; the CCC Digital Key ecosystem enables innovative development on top of the architecture. Vehicle and consumer device interoperability is essential in providing a path for competitive differentiation today and support for a creative and imaginative future.
The CCC Digital Key white paper – The Future of Vehicle Access – is now available to CCC members and the general public. Those wishing to download the white paper can visit the CCC site here.
MacDailyNews Note: How to add your car key to Apple Wallet on your iPhone:
- Make sure that your car is associated with the account provided by the car’s manufacturer.
-
Open the car manufacturer’s app, email, or text message, or use your car’s display and follow the instructions to set up a key.
-
When you’re sent to the Wallet app, tap Continue.
-
If prompted by the onscreen instructions, place your iPhone on the key reader while your iPhone and car pair.
-
When your iPhone and car finish pairing, tap Done.
When you add your car key on your iPhone, it might be added automatically to your paired Apple Watch. Or you might see the option to add it to your paired Apple Watch. You can also manually add your car key to your Apple Watch. In the Apple Watch app on your paired iPhone, tap Wallet & Apple Pay > the Add button next to your car key.
