Manufacturers have spent a lot of time, and money, developing keyless cars, it is already available on luxury vehicles. Will this mean the end of the car key?
Keyless cars have become all the rage with luxury manufacturers and the technology will soon be available for everyday – cheaper – cars too.
Until now it was only top luxury cars that had the keyless option but, as engineers explain, once all cars have central locking and a computer management, passive entry systems are cheaper to manufacture. “You save four or five or six mechanical locks, with their moving parts, and add several antennae. The rest is software,” said Delphi engineer Julia Langenbach.
Many of the systems use a smart card that has a tiny transmitter in it. It unlocks the car as you approach it or touch the door handle.
The car senses your hand touching a handle by using capacitors, infra-red beams or microswitches. It then sends a radio signal searching for the car’s plastic card. If the owner is close by, the card sends back a coded identification signal, and the doors unlock. Seats, mirrors, radio stations and other settings automatically adjust to the memorised positions associated with the driver.
Thieves cannot record the signal because the codes keep changing. The car can be started with the push of a button. In some systems the card would need to be inserted into the instrument panel, but others sense the card in the car and allows the driver to start with a button or touch pad.
The 1999 Mercedes Benz S-Class had a similar card. But it did not have to be inserted, it just had to be in the car to start the vehicle – the driver starts the engine using a touch pad inside the car. BMW has a similar system in the forthcoming 7-Series and the Lexus LS 430 has keyless locks in Asia and Europe. Renault is planning to put the technology on all of its cars.
“This is the way of the future,” said Thierry Morin, chief executive of Valeo SA, the company that makes the keyless systems for Renault.
At least five supplier companies are developing similar systems for models that will be launched in two or three years.
Manufacturers are also working on a system that will only need your fingerprint to start the car. The car key, it seems, will soon be dead.
“Sometimes when you introduce a new feature, you don’t know if it will take off or not,” said Morin. “With this one, we know.”
