Volvo customers will use a mobile app that replaces the physical key with a digital one. This innovative Bluetooth-enabled digital key technology will offer Volvo customers even greater flexibility, allowing them to use and share their vehicle in unprecedented ways.
Volvo's new app allows the customer's mobile phone digital key to do everything a physical key currently does, such as locking and unlocking the doors or trunk, or starting the engine.
This new technology also offers customers the option of receiving more than one digital key in their app, allowing them to access different Volvo vehicles located in various places, according to their mobility needs.
With the app, users can book and pay for a rental car anywhere in the world and receive their digital key immediately on their phone. Upon arrival, the customer simply locates the rental car using GPS, unlocks it, and starts driving, thus avoiding the frustrating queues that form at rental counters in airports and train stations.
The Volvo Cars digital key will also enable more convenient and simpler car sharing. Volvo owners can send their digital key to other people via their mobile phones—family, friends, or colleagues—so they can use the car.
Volvo will begin testing this technology in the spring of 2016 through its car-sharing company, Sunfleet, located at Gothenburg Airport in Sweden. In 2017, the digital key technology will also be included in a limited number of commercial vehicles.
However, physical keys will continue to be available for those who prefer them.
