Tesla App Gains Ultra Wideband Support to Improve Phone Keys - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Tesla App Gains Ultra Wideband Support to Improve Phone Keys

The latest Tesla software adds Ultra Wideband support (UWB) to improve the function of the built-in Phone Key feature in the Tesla app (via Tesla North). Tesla owners can use Phone Key to lock and unlock their vehicles without a physical key.

tesla red orange bg feature
Ultra Wideband support provides more precise tracking capabilities than Bluetooth, which means the Phone Key feature will better recognize when an iPhone is near a vehicle to unlock/lock it at the appropriate time. From the release notes:

Ultrawide band (UWB) technology is now available for Phone Key. So your vehicle and Phone Key can communicate with greater accuracy to more responsively lock, unlock, and open Automatic Doors.

Tesla owners will need both a vehicle that supports Ultra Wideband and an iPhone with Ultra Wideband to take advantage of the new capabilities. Enabling the updated UWB key requires going to the Phone Key section of the Tesla app (which must be upgraded to version 4.29.5) and following the upgrade steps.

Tag: Tesla

Popular Stories

imac video apple feature

Apple Released Yet Another New Product Today

Friday March 20, 2026 2:39 pm PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
ios 26 4 pastel

iOS 26.4: Top 10 New Features Coming to Your iPhone

Friday March 20, 2026 2:44 pm PDT by
iOS 26.4 isn't the major update with new Siri features that we hoped for, but there are some useful quality of life improvements, and a little bit of fun with an AI playlist generator and new emoji characters. Playlist Playground - Apple Music has a Playlist Playground option that lets you generate playlists from text-based descriptions. You can include moods, feelings, activities, or...
HomePod mini and Apple TV Sage

New Apple TV and HomePod Mini Remain 'Ready' to Launch

Sunday March 22, 2026 6:33 am PDT by
Apple has unveiled nine new products this month, but the wait continues for the next-generation Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini models. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said new versions of the Apple TV and HomePod mini have been "ready" since last year, but he reiterated that Apple has held off on releasing them until the more personalized version of Siri and other...

Top Rated Comments

WarmWinterHat Avatar
28 months ago

Don't forget the cybertruck.
That only works with the Vision Pro.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Desmondhuz Avatar
28 months ago
Which phones and which vehicles are compatible??
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
28 months ago

How much better compared to bluetooth?
Better is always a good thing, just curious for this use case in the real life, how much is perceptible
MASSIVE on my BMW. Had the Tesla key on two vehicles in the past, but UWB seems to wake and connect MUCH faster, more reliably, and it picks up which of my wife and I are on the drivers side of the car more accurately, which leads to the correct profile being loaded. YMMV, since I am talking across two different car brands, but if Tesla does as good a job as BMW, this should be a big upgrade.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Dcgod Avatar
28 months ago

Looks like this only works on the new Highland Model 3 and current gen Model X for now.
And Cybertruck.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
28 months ago
Hey MacRumors the model you pictured is not UWB capable. You’re showing a pre-2022 Model X.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tgom222 Avatar
28 months ago

Which phones and which vehicles are compatible??
Don't know which cars but iPhone 11 and up have UWB.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)