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Apple Car Key Support Coming to Future GWM Tank SUVs

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Apple's Car Keys feature appears to be coming to TANK vehicles made by Chinese maker Great Wall Motor (GWM), based on code changes discovered by MacRumors in Apple's Wallet app backend.

digital car key iphone
GWM Tank is a dedicated off-road luxury SUV brand produced by the Chinese automaker.

Car Keys allows an iPhone or Apple Watch with NFC capabilities to unlock a vehicle through the Wallet app. A digital version of a car key is stored in Wallet, and unlocking can be done simply by holding an Apple Watch or ‌iPhone‌ near a compatible vehicle's NFC reader.

What can be done with Car Keys may vary by car manufacturer, but at a minimum, Car Keys can be used to unlock your car, lock your car, and start your car, which are the features available with a physical key.

Apple introduced Car Keys in 2022, and car manufacturers like BMW, Rivian, Kia, and Hyundai have all implemented support for Car Keys. Apple maintains a full list of vehicles that support Car Keys on its CarPlay model availability webpage.

Tag: iPhone Car Keys Guide

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Top Rated Comments

turbineseaplane Avatar
turbineseaplane
22 hours ago at 07:03 am
I love this branding.

I'm surprised GM hasn't already snapped up the TANK SUV moniker, as they make several models that would qualify.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
KENESS Avatar
KENESS
22 hours ago at 07:04 am
Just came to say "Great Wall Motor" is a pretty dang cool name...
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
springer7217 Avatar
springer7217
23 hours ago at 06:24 am
I'd like to point out that Tesla does this flawlessly already and I don't think they're using `Wallet`.
As long as my Apple Watch is on my wrist, or phone in my pocket (with bluetooth on) I'm able to get into my car.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Reason077 Avatar
Reason077
11 hours ago at 06:29 pm

Except Tesla’s phone key works flawlessly with its cars and yeah Apple Watch and nfc cars. This is a standard protocol I guess to support the same for many vehicles.

Apple should use teslas tech, lol.
They already do. At least for recent models: Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) with Ultra-Wideband (UWB). Apple Car Key can additionally use NFC on older vehicles, but UWB is the preferred technology. For older vehicles/phones that don't have UWB, Tesla's app uses BLE only, no NFC.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
springer7217 Avatar
springer7217
22 hours ago at 07:24 am

I don't think Tesla really did anything particularly special, did they? The phone (or watch) and the car connect over bluetooth. If the connection is successful and the device is a designated key, then the car is unlocked. When the connection is lost, the car locks.

I think on Tesla's side they can track the approximate distance and direction to the device, so they can be a bit more specific about making sure it's not a faint signal from too far away, or moving in a direction that suggests approaching the door or moving away vs just walking by.
Bingo.
They use existing technologies, and build things that feel like magic.

Similar to how Apple operated prior to Tim Apple.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
I
ifxf
22 hours ago at 07:21 am
I would never use the apple car key for driving my car. Just yesterday when I wanted to move my car out of the garage, I discovered the key was gone out of my Apple wallet. Don't know if this was due to an upgraded car app or updating ios or just Apple's security rules since I haven't used the phone key in a while.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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