I would love to see Mazda and/or Subaru support… Pipe dream probably.
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Here's Which Vehicles Offer iPhone Car Keys
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Not hyperbole, it really is a game changer. After I drove my car home from the dealer, I put my fobs away in a safe place and rarely use them- long trips and valet only. Slightly OT- I live in AZ, and especially in the summer it is an absolute godsend to be able to remotely turn on the AC (I have an i5) for 5 minutes before I get in my car. Surprisingly, it has minimal effect on overall duration between charges.
Thanks, I did not (and still don't) see anything earlier in the thread, but I missed the reference to "Express Mode" in the article itself. Diving into Apple's doc on this, Express Mode can be enabled individually for keys and transit cards (but not payment cards). So it can be required, or not, depending on the user's preference.
My Kia EV6 is very responsive to lock and unlock actions. Just as fast as the fob.
Hope this works well. I got a Telsa and I cannot image going back to any keys. It's just so nice to have one less thing to deal with and be able to lock and unlock from anywhere. Its great.
To caveat, SE 3rd gen doesn't have UWB and only iPhone 11/Apple Watch 6 or later offers either remote or passive entry with car Apple keys. For cars that support passive entry, there were 4 that started with 2022 models, another 8 with 2023 models, and another 14 with 2024 models. The majority of these were Genesis and BMW vehicles (15/26 of them, and 11/12 prior to 2024).iPhone XS or SE 2nd gen or later, Apple Watch 5 or SE or later.
Add your car key to Apple Wallet on your iPhone or Apple Watch - Apple Support
You can add your car key to the Wallet app, and use your iPhone or Apple Watch to lock, unlock, and start your car.support.apple.com
Meanwhile Tesla supports Bluetooth as a fallback so all 2021+ vehicles and all 3/Y vehicles have keyless entry with little restriction on the phone (and all 2012+ Teslas supported passive entry and remote features before that). To enhance security with Bluetooth, Tesla supports a PIN to drive (aka 2FA). But UWB is admittedly new to Teslas too and offers better security and consistency. 2021+ Model S/X, 2024+ Model 3, and 2025+ Model Y vehicles support it and it came as a software update at the beginning of 2024.
The benefit of using the Tesla app is it doesn't just work with iPhones, and they can add features on demand instead of waiting for Apple to finalize any specifications. Tesla might end up supporting Apple's Car Keys feature since it doesn't seem to be a Carplay specific feature, but there doesn't seem to be much benefit.
Hi,
There is a big difference between what Apple brands digital key 1.0 (NFC only) and 2.0 (UWB or NFC). You should update this article with mention of which are UWB, and those are all listed in this wikipedia regarding the standard from the car connectivity consortium: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_digital_keys_in_mobile_wallets
Also the article should highlight what phones support UWB, calling out that it’s not on iPhone SE models and the new 16e.
As someone who’s owned cars with both versions, 2.0 is a world ahead. A good parallel will be the difference between wired and wireless CarPlay.
There is a big difference between what Apple brands digital key 1.0 (NFC only) and 2.0 (UWB or NFC). You should update this article with mention of which are UWB, and those are all listed in this wikipedia regarding the standard from the car connectivity consortium: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_digital_keys_in_mobile_wallets
Also the article should highlight what phones support UWB, calling out that it’s not on iPhone SE models and the new 16e.
As someone who’s owned cars with both versions, 2.0 is a world ahead. A good parallel will be the difference between wired and wireless CarPlay.
I think this is great for anyone with a car it supports. I personally don't are as I have a Tesla and this is just how it is now. I love it, no physical key, though I do keep the keycard in my wallet. My phone or my watch can unlock the car and let me me drive. Another driver can be added or removed. The Tesla app is really slick, as well as the Tesla UI. A lot of people seem to have trouble believing this but CarPlay is not the best thing around, though I will say it is probably better than most car manufacturers systems. Having gone from CarPlay in my 2020 Subaru Outback to my Tesla Y, I would not switch back at all. Everything is smooth and quick and just looks better.
Technically Android also has its own version of car keys, and there's an open standard called the Car Connectivity Consortium that AFAIK is the backbone of both Apple's and Android's implementations. I believe BMW has gone all in on CCC and it supports the standard on Android and iPhone. But I don't know if anyone else does support Android besides BMW. https://carconnectivity.org/
Apple I don't think is the one finalizing specifications, I think it's CCC.
It is not a Carplay specific feature for sure. There's nothing even Carplay related with Car Keys. Rivian for instance is going to support Car Keys but not support Carplay.
The main benefits as far as I can see is definitely being able to share keys over iMessage (needs an iPhone though), and the other person doesn't need an app for that. And the "phone is dead" scenario where with a small amount of battery available (not enough to boot) you can still use NFC to open and start a car, though that does require NFC, I'm not sure if every car supporting Car Keys has NFC (I think they can go UWB without NFC).
I'm pretending to be the owner's phone. Doesn't seem to help.
How was this list compiled? That's significantly more car models than officially listed by Apple.
I LOOOOOVE that about my 3 series, one of my fav features. Messes with me when I drive other cars thought 😂 I constantly leave the doors open when I leave lol
I find it interesting GMC is on the list. Didn't GM banish Apple CarPlay in favor of their own crappy system?
It would make no sense for Tesla to support Apple car keys. The is already the key, and you don't need to do anything other than come close to your car and it unlocks. Walk away and it locks. I can open the trunk, turn on the AC, view the cameras and even speak to someone near the car through the external speaker. So the Apple car key would be a big downgrade from what Tesla already has, and no Tesla owner would use it.
Apple's list is quite outdated now. I did a lot of research to make my own list, spent a lot of time on Google and ChatGPT finding and confirming vehicle models across automaker websites, YouTube video descriptions, etc. I only included models that I could find concrete evidence for, so my list actually isn't as comprehensive as the one available on Wikipedia, since I could not independently confirm some of those. I got fairly close, though.
It would be incredibly redundant. I don't think there is a single feature of apple car key that tesla has not already implemented to be the same or better. Other than maybe some cases with pre-ultrawideband teslas I've never heard anyone that has one complain about the key functionality
Thanks for being thorough with the compilation. That is actually why I asked since I didn't realize some of these models had support. Really wish Apple would keep their databases up-to-date, especially since they're reference links but also since new models are added frequently.
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