If you’re the sort of person who’s always misplacing their keys, well, in two years’ time, you will not have to worry. Hyundai has recently demoed a system that will allow the unlocking of your car using just your cellphone. Sounds too much like something out of a James Bond film doesn’t it?
In its latest demo, Hyundai showcased how they plan on making the cellphone an integral part of your vehicular lives. The entry mechanism that they demoed ditches the Bluetooth concept for one that employs Near Field Communications.
Thanks to a small sticker (an NFC tag) on the window of your car, all you would have to do is swing your phone over it and the car in unlocked and ready to go.
Along with keyless entry, Hyundai is also attempting to bring together a more personal experience to driving. A dock in the center of the vehicle would be a place where the phone could be seated for charging, from where, it will be able to transmit your playlists and radio preferences to the in-dash entertainment system.
Along with entertainment, Hyundai also plans on being able to save seat alignment preferences, temperature preferences and any other personal settings to individual driver profiles, which will be assigned to specific phones. Essentially, if 3 different people drive the same car, all they have to do is place their phone on the little dock and voila!
While the system seems like quite a leap forward as far as convenience goes, but we can’t help but be a little skeptical. A system like this could be a huge liability. In the event that you get robbed, you not only lose your cellphone, but also your car. Probably a good thing the system is still 2 years away from mass market manufacturing. Hopefully, we’d have figured out better security measures by then.