Hyundai Connectivity Concept turns smartphones into car keys

by Edwin - on December 30th, 2012

Now here is a novel idea â€" since “there is an app for everything”, why not expand that horizon with the Hyundai Connectivity Concept? Imagine your smartphone doubling up as your vehicle’s key, now what would make one less thing to remember to bring with you wherever you go, don’t you think so? After all, vehicle manufacturers have been moving in a direction where content from your smartphone is being sent to your vehicle, and with a smartphone, you are able to access navigation, music, text messaging and other phone functions from the driver and/or passenger seat. With the Hyundai Connectivity Concept, the South Korean vehicle manufacturer intends to bring things up by another level, allowing you to transfer all of the phone’s content to the car’s touchscreen display wirelessly and throwing in other wireless functions to boot.

Hyundai has named it the Connectivity Concept, being a “technology study” and has a dream of it reaching production within the next three years. In fact, Hyundai has already equipped the conceptual system on a New Generation i30 as part of its demonstration purposes. The Connectivity Concept hardware will kick off before you even enter the car. Instead of a hard or electronic key, the Hyundai Connectivity Concept will rely on near-field communications (NFC) to pop the locks of the vehicle open, all you need to do is place the smartphone over an NFC tag on the door, and be prepared to enter.

When you have planted your rear end on the comfortable seat, the smartphone can then slide into a wireless dock that is located in the center console, where the entire slew of its content, ranging from music to phone contacts, and profile settings among others are then streamed to the car’s 7-inch touchscreen. The car’s infotainment system will resemble the look and function of the phone’s touchscreen, and a wireless charger is also thrown into the mix. This technology is expected to be commercialized in 2015.

Press Release