After Oppo, OnePlus and Vivo announced this week that they are working with Chinese carmaker Nio to make digital car keys available in some of their phones, Xiaomi announced at MWC 2023 that they have partnered with BMW, the second of 2023 and from the fourth quarter of 2018, certain Xiaomi phones will be used as digital car keys for some BWM models. In the European market, instead of Mi Wallet, Google Wallet is used to store the car key, the phone can be used to open, lock and start the car, and the key can also be shared.
(source: Xiaomi) [+]
The Xiaomi 12S already knew this in China, where BMWs of the 3, 5 and iX series can be opened with a phone using NFC. Xiaomi did not say whether they will come to the European market with the NFC-based solution, or whether they will use UWB, like Apple iPhones and Samsung Galaxy S. However, we managed to find out that Google’s system is working in the background, from which we can conclude that the UWB solution will be available in Western markets. The key is encrypted on the phone, and the user must identify himself to use it. If the device is left or stolen, the car key can be deactivated remotely.
