The Bosch Automotive Electronics division, based in Plymouth, will unveil what it calls a “revolutionary” smartphone app-based keyless entry system at the Consumer Electronics Show next month in Las Vegas.
The Bosch technology, called Perfectly Keyless, works with a virtual key stored in the smartphone. Sensors installed in the car recognize the owner’s smartphone and open the vehicle only for them. Digital key management links the app and the vehicle via the cloud.
“Our Perfectly Keyless system revolutionizes keyless entry systems,” says Harald Kröger, president of the Bosch division. “It is the ‘key’ to preventing digital car theft.”
Conventional keyless entry systems require the driver to carry the car key. To open the door and start the engine, it communicates with the car using a radio signal in the low frequency or ultra-high frequency range. Technologically advanced thieves can re-create these signals. The industry, Kröger says, in a continual race to stay ahead of the bad guys.
“Bosch is launching into a sprint in the development of digital vehicle entry systems,” says Kröger. “Our motto is revolution, not evolution.”
Instead of transmitting data via low or high frequency radio technology, the Bosch system uses the smartphone as a virtual key and Bluetooth as the transmission technology, making the car key unnecessary.
