With the Car Connectivity Consortium’s (CCC) Digital Key release 3.0 specification now readily available, the standards for turning the smartphone into a full digital car key have been defined. The 3.0 release adds the handsfree experience on top of the secure digital key management. It will soon be available across most leading car and phone brands. Read on to discover three reasons why the Digital Key release 3.0 is cause for excitement.
Although smartphones have been used to access vehicles for some time now, there is no worldwide standard which enables and ensures mobile car access with the performance and convenience customers are used to with their existing key fob. In the past, one would have to rely on mobile apps provided by vehicle manufacturers and rental companies, meaning different, non-interoperable approaches with varying degrees of convenience, security and privacy protection. Through the new standard, propriety systems are a thing of the past. Smartphone manufacturers have worked together with carmakers to enable a secure environment where car keys can be implemented into a phone’s wallet. It even enables new functions beyond the capabilities of today’s classic keys.
The traditional key fob allows users to lock and unlock their car, open the windows or start the engine. These functions are of course also provided by the Digital Key, however, the CCC Digital Key can extend additional comfort functions. You can now have full control over the access rights to your car. The CCC Digital Key lets users share access among family and friends, no matter the physical distance. Access can be transferred in an instant and for any amount of time. Furthermore, certain rights can be granted, ranging from access only to the car, to full driving capability.
The Digital Key 3.0 release comes with true handsfree car access based on the unique localization capabilities of Ultra-Wideband (UWB). Not only does handsfree passive keyless entry grant the same level of comfort and safety as classic key fob-based solutions, there’s also no need for interaction with the smartphone. This means users don’t even have to get their phones out of their pockets to open an app, allowing truly handsfree access for even more convenience.
Digital Key release 3.0 extends the end-to-end security from the phone’s secure element to the car’s secure element via Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE). By adding UWB wireless connectivity technologies, a secure ranging session is established. Ranging keys are derived from Digital Keys securely stored in Secure Element. When in use, ranging keys have a limited lifetime designed to shorten the time window available to an attacker. This means that UWB communication provides secure and accurate ranging in the distance measurement between the vehicle and mobile device. Moreover, UWB's precise real-time localization capabilities protect the owners from relay attacks—all together making Digital Keys even more secure than traditional key fobs.
The new CCC Digital release 3.0 is changing how we interact with our vehicles in ways that make life more convenient and engaging. Visit our Smart Car Access Reference Platform to discover more.
Markus Staeblein is Vice President and General Manager of Secure Car Access at NXP and Country Manager of NXP Semiconductors Austria. He has more than 20 years of experience in the semiconductor industry with senior management roles in the Automotive, Industrial & IoT markets. He holds a diploma in Engineering from the FH Wiesbaden and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from The Open University.
