Apple Preparing to Add Support for Digital Car Keys on Volvo, Polestar, and Audi Vehicles

Apple is preparing to begin supporting digital car keys in the Wallet app for certain Volvo, Polestar, and Audi vehicles, based on code changes discovered by MacRumors in Apple's Wallet app backend.

volvo polestar audi
‌The car keys‌ function can allow an iPhone or Apple Watch with NFC capabilities to unlock, lock, or start a vehicle through the Wallet app by simply holding the device near a compatible vehicle's NFC reader. Car key functionality may vary by manufacturer and model.

Apple introduced ‌digital car key support‌ in 2022, and select car brands like BMW, BYD, Hyundai/Genesis/Kia, Lotus, Mercedes-Benz, and RAM have implemented support for the feature‌. Apple maintains a full list of vehicles that support ‌car keys‌ on its CarPlay model availability web page.

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Top Rated Comments

ShadowJamie Avatar
10 months ago
Great feature. I hope it becomes a widespread standard like CarPlay.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sflagel Avatar
10 months ago

How about Tesla? Wait that was done 10+ years ago.
Yawn. You cannot unlock a Tesla with the Apple Wallet. You can unlock it with the Tesla App but that’s not what this is.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ikir Avatar
10 months ago
Polestar 4 is my dream machine
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Martin Bland Avatar
10 months ago


Apple is preparing to begin supporting digital car keys in the Wallet app for certain Volvo, Polestar, and Audi vehicles, based on code changes discovered by MacRumors in Apple's Wallet app backend.


What a tease. Which “certain” vehicles?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
patjem Avatar
10 months ago
Let's hope it will be retro-fitted in my m/y 2024 XC40
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ArtOfWarfare Avatar
10 months ago

How about Tesla? Wait that was done 10+ years ago.
Unless I'm mistaken, this feature enables the phone to work as a key even when it's dead. It's writing to the NFC chip on the phone (or maybe just pairing the chip to the car) so that the car can passively read it even if the phone is dead.

So this would reduce the need for Tesla's keycards (of course, the keycard is still nice for valet.)
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)