News article: Will your Smartphone replace your car key?

[John Lamoureux]

And, discuss:

Will your Smartphone replace your car key?

 

[nitzmahone]

Well first off, at least for Android, they're totally wrong about "BLE doesn’t work unless the phone is turned on and the Tesla app is open and active on the phone." Dunno about with the iPhone the guy's holding, but definitely not true of a proper Android build. I can reboot my phone and not touch a thing (eg, launching the Tesla app), and I'm still able to unlock my car by walking up to it. BLE is usable by background services, which Tesla has properly implemented. I *believe* it works the same way on iOS as well, but less sure about that.

 

[ℬête Noire]

Well first off, at least for Android, they're totally wrong about "BLE doesn’t work unless the phone is turned on and the Tesla app is open and active on the phone." Dunno about with the iPhone the guy's holding, but definitely not true of a proper Android build. I can reboot my phone and not touch a thing (eg, launching the Tesla app), and I'm still able to unlock my car by walking up to it. BLE is usable by background services, which Tesla has properly implemented. I *believe* it works the same way on iOS as well, but less sure about that.

Apparently a few major versions of iOS back the functionality was added to wake background problems on a BLE event. I don't know how solid this functionality is, how difficult it is write code that properly handles it.

 

[ℬête Noire]

There’s also an issue with the smartphone itself: The lifespan of a car is far longer than that of any smartphone, so suppliers will have to work with phone manufacturers to ensure that their virtual-key technology remains compatible over the years.

The above sentence feels above-average on the FUD scale. Bluetooth is a fairly well established standard that I don't expect to see unsupported within the next 10 years, or even longer. Especially once there are millions of vehicles on the road keyed to using it.

I see spots past there where it goes further downhill.

 

[John Lamoureux]

The above sentence feels above-average on the FUD scale. Bluetooth is a fairly well established standard that I don't expect to see unsupported within the next 10 years, or even longer. Especially once there are millions of vehicles on the road keyed to using it.

I see spots past there where it goes further downhill.

FAKE NEWS!