iPhone Car Keys in Apple Wallet Expanding to Three More Vehicle Brands

I don't quite understand the purpose of Apple Wallet Car Keys, unless this is intended for occasional users of a given vehicle. For my prior and current Audis (2018, 2025), merely having the fob in your pocket is adequate to unlock doors or tailgate without even touching the fob. And since I keep a couple other physical keys on the fob that remain essential, I can't imagine leaving home without the fob on the days that I drive a car. Or is this for the few people who have eliminated all physical keys from their life? What happens if you need to valet park?

I hope the Apple car key system is not as clunky as the photo implies, where you have to take the phone out of your pocket to unlock the door. Tesla's system is invisible; it unlocks as you get close to the car, and you never have to think about it.

It's not. There are 2 different levels of implementation.

* NFC: You need to tap your iPhone or Apple Watch against the door handle.
* UWB: Hands-free. Approach the car to unlock.

Why Apple Car Key is better than app-based approaches like Tesla:

* App does not need to run in the background
* Works even when the phone's battery is dead (iPhone and Apple Watch reserves a small portion of the battery)
* Higher security
* You can turn off the Express Mode, which requires unlocking the phone before the vehicle can be driven, vs clunkier PIN to drive on Tesla

Come on Tesla, I know you can do it!

I had to look up what the difference was between Tesla's method and Apple Wallet Car Key.

The latter certainly comes with a few advantages.

It's worth noting that Apple's Car Key is based on an industry standard from the Car Connectivity Consortium. The latest Digital Key 3.0 allows a combination of Bluetooth LE, NFC, and UWB. That said, the car must still be certified to work with Apple Car Key and Google Digital Car Key.

To date in the US, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Genesis, Hyundai, Kia, Lexus, Mercedes-Bens, MINI, Polestar, Porsche, RAM, Rivian, Toyota, and Volvo support Apple Car Key, now to be joined by Lincoln and Lucid.

It's important to also emphasize that some carmakers bundle digital car key feature through cellular connectivity/remote control plan, such as Kia (10 years free), Lexus (3 years free), Porsche (10 years free), and Toyota (1 year free).

As for Tesla, there's a rumor that it is adding Chinese's competing ICCE-based digital key standard, so perhaps the company is opened to bringing Apple and Google's digital key standard via software update.

Good to see more manufacturers supporting this. Expansion of the service with more car manufacturers is moving at a slow pace.