[richiemail]

Hi,

I've been lurking around this forum for the last couple of months while planning a move out of an F11 520D Touring. Just this morning I moved into a 6 month-old G30 530d X Drive MSport in Carbon Black, loving it so far (apart from the dealer being happy to let me go out the door before I asked about the Digital Key. It's being mailed out later apparently...)

I'm a big fan of the remote services, which I've had on my last F11 and the F10 before that. The scope of services is much wider on the G30. I know CarPlay has people pretty divided, I added it since I've always been a big fan of the feature on hire cars while travelling.

While in the connected drive store I noticed a digital service showing as not available for my vehicle called "Digital Key for5". The description next to it is in German, but translates to:

"Do you always have your smartphone with you? With the digital key you can lock and unlock your BMW, start the engine and even share it with five friends"

This sounds a lot like the smartphone key standard (Digital key 1.0, just to be confusing) recently agreed by BMW, Volvo and some others. Does anyone know if this means we should be seeing this feature extend to UK? Or is this feature only available for a specific vehicle or spec?

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I know BMW announced the digital key with the launch of 8 series. However, I'm not sure when they will extend it to other vehicles in the range. As your car is 6 months old, it's the same age as mine. I've not been offered anything yet. In all likelihood BMW will only do the digital keys for 5 for new vehicles than current vehicles.

[AP]

How does this work?
Is it sending commands via a cellular network , if so this prompts the obvious question about does it work in areas of bad coverage ie underground car parks?
Or is it Bluetooth?

Whilst a fan of the bmw app on my phone , am more happy to carry a conventional key to lock and unlock on a day to day basis.

[richiemail]

I found some more details in the connect drive store, where it references Samsung phones. I think Merc already have a similar option for Samsung/Android phones using NFC. iPhones have the NFC chip locked down (or will until ios12). I think this maybe the service that becomes digital key. I also think the hardware to support is onboard, but I agree, the feature will probably be limited to MY2019 cars...

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Originally Posted by AP

How does this work?
Is it sending commands via a cellular network , if so this prompts the obvious question about does it work in areas of bad coverage ie underground car parks?
Or is it Bluetooth?

Whilst a fan of the bmw app on my phone , am more happy to carry a conventional key to lock and unlock on a day to day basis.

Uses NFC technology. Phone will need to be very close to the door. I.e. less than 10cm as that's the distance which NFC works.

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Originally Posted by richiemail

I found some more details in the connect drive store, where it references Samsung phones. I think Merc already have a similar option for Samsung/Android phones using NFC. iPhones have the NFC chip locked down (or will until ios12). I think this maybe the service that becomes digital key. I also think the hardware to support is onboard, but I agree, the feature will probably be limited to MY2019 cars...

BMW has a history of holding back some of the technological innovations until a LCI. So might even by after model year 2019 for G30.