Bosch claims its Perfectly Keyless app can turn your smartphone into the key for your car and put an end to the morning hunt for your keys…
…BUT, IS THIS A SOLUTION to a problem that no-one has? The boffins at the Bosch Automotive Electronics division in Australia have come up with a way to turn your smartphone into the key for your car, they call it Perfectly Keyless.
“Perfectly Keyless, our digital vehicle access system, means that drivers will be able to do without traditional car keys. It’s a great example of stress-free connected mobility,” says Harald Kröger, President of the Bosch Automotive Electronics division.
As drivers approach their vehicles, their smartphones are identified by on-board sensors. “Once this identification has happened, the vehicle is unlocked without any need for a physical key. Similarly, no key is needed to start the engine or to lock the car again at the end of a journey,” Kröger says.
According to Bosch the system can also authorize other users to access your vehicle and if you lose your phone you can disable the system remotely and then reconnect your vehicle to a new smartphone. The company claims that in a “secure process that is protected against unauthorized access, an additional virtual key will then be sent via the cloud to other smartphones. This will allow the providers of car-sharing services and the operators of vehicle fleets to manage access and keys flexibly”.
So, how does Perfectly Keyless work? To use it, drivers download an app onto their smartphones, and connect their cars to the app. Once they have done this, the smartphone generates a one-off security key that fits their respective vehicle’s digital lock. Perfectly Keyless uses a wireless connection to the on-board sensors to measure how far away the smartphone is, and to identify the security key. Once the distance between driver and vehicle is less than two metres, the car door is unlocked. Hunting for the car key is no longer necessary. As soon as the vehicle has been unlocked, any predetermined individual settings, such as those for the rear-view mirror and seat position, are activated. And if Perfectly Keyless detects that the smartphone is in the vehicle, a touch of the start-stop button is enough to start the engine. When the driver gets out of the car at the end of the journey, the system continues to keep a virtual eye on the smartphone. Once driver and phone have moved more than two metres away from the car, it is automatically locked securely. The system sends an acknowledgment to the driver’s smartphone.
Perfectly Keyless was developed by Bosch boffins here in Australia and the company claims it’s being prepared for series production roll-out now and should be on the market within two years.
“Perfectly Keyless is an example of the high-value engineering work that can be done in Australia in a post-passenger vehicle manufacturing environment,” says Gavin Smith, President at Bosch Australia.
