What's the news?
We've all heard of keyless entry and go, but Volvo wants to make that idea a reality by 2017, rather than just a turn of phrase that means 'keep your key in your pocket'.
The Swedish manufacturer aims to be the first to sell its cars without any physical key whatsoever by next year. Instead, customers will be offered an application for their smartphones that contains a 'digital key', with which they can access and start their cars.
It'll use Bluetooth technology and will allow owners to receive more than one digital key per app, which will grant them access to different Volvo cars in different locations - such as getting a digital key for their rental car delivered immediately to their phone. On the flipside, their car's digital key can be sent to other people via their phones, so that family members, friends or colleagues can drive the Volvo without needing to borrow the owner's phone.
"At Volvo, we are not interested in technology for the sake of technology," said Henrik Green, vice president of Product Strategy & Vehicle Line Management at Volvo. "New technology has to make our customers' lives easier and save them time. Mobility needs are evolving and so are our customers' expectation to access cars in an uncomplicated way.
"Our innovative digital key technology has the potential to completely change how a Volvo can be accessed and shared. Instead of sitting idle in a parking lot the entire day, cars could be used more often and efficiently by whoever the owner wishes."
Anything else?
Volvo will pilot this technology in spring 2016 via its car-sharing firm Sunfleet, stationed at Gothenburg airport, Sweden. A limited number of commercially available cars will be equipped with the new digital key technology in 2017.
The tech will get its world debut at the Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona in late February.