Apple CarKey might finally make its way into more cars

Apple introduced the ability to digitally store your car key inside your iPhone nearly two years ago. Called CarKey, the nifty Apple feature was limited to new BMW models, but that’s about to change.

That’s according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, writing in his latest weekly Power On newsletter. He says that Hyundai and its higher-end Genesis badge will also get Apple CarKey support “by this summer.”

The evidence for this is some hints inside iOS 15’s code; which pointed to a wider roll-out of the CarKey feature. Some of his sources also pointed to the summer roll-out, corroborating the code pointers.

The cool thing with iOS 15 is that it has Ultra-Wideband (UWB) support, so you won’t even need to take your iPhone out of your pocket to unlock your car. That’s assuming that Hyundai implements the UWB tech, as its vehicles only have NFC support currently. The only car that currently supports UWB unlock is BMW’s all-electric iX.

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This isn’t the first time Hyundai has been mentioned as partnering with Apple. Early last year, there were reports that Hyundai was working on an electric vehicle(EV) with Apple. That EV might not have come to fruition, but it’s now clear that the two companies were still working together.

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With Apple CarKey coming to Hyundai models, is that the end of the partnership between the two companies? Apple is reportedly working on an extended version of CarPlay that could control other features on a car. It’s entirely possible that Hyundai is exploring using Apple’s new car control API, codenamed IronHeart.

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