Hyundai and its luxury brand Genesis are reportedly planning to embed Apple's digital CarKey feature, which allows users to unlock their vehicles using the iPhone's Wallet app. This attribute could be available in the vehicles as early as summer this year.

The South Korean automaker already offers proprietary iOS apps in its vehicles, such as the Genesis Intelligent Assistant as well as MyHyundai with Bluelink, which allows users to unlock doors and remotely start their vehicles.

It is worth noting that Hyundai's Near Field Communication (NFC)-based digital key feature is only compatible with Android phones.

According to sources, Apple's car key addition would improve the efficacy of Hyundai vehicles by providing system-level shortcuts for Apple Wallet.

As per reports, Apple first confirmed the introduction of this digital car key feature in the year 2020, but it was made available only in certain models of the BMW brand.

However, there had also been news about Apple extending this facet to Hyundai vehicles since January 2021. Besides, a reference to Genesis automobiles was made in the iOS 15 code.

While the plans for integration now appear to be evident, it is still questionable whether Hyundai will use additional Apple technology, such as the iPhone's ultra-wideband (UWB), which permits owners to unlock their vehicles without being required to take the phone out from their pockets.

In the same line, BMW had previously declared the incorporation of the UWB feature for its battery-electric SUV, iX, which will work with the U1 chip used in the iPhone 11 and later models.

Notably, there have been indications in the past that Apple and Hyundai were collaborating to manufacture an electric vehicle, but Hyundai debunked these rumors by stating that it was no longer in talks with the tech giant about any such kind of deal.

Source credits –

https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/17/22887601/apple-digital-carkey-support-hyundai-and-genesis-cars-report