We summed up top reasons why OEMs, car sharing, and other companies should look into this promising technology.
OEMs
Today car OEMs are racing to respond to fast-changing customer demands. And digital technology can be their key to delighting the consumer and keeping up with the disruptive industry changes.
For example, Digital Key offers the value that matches OEMs’ goal of making the daily car use an ultimate experience through comfort and convenience. It allows to center many functions around just one tool, which consumers already have and actively use – their smartphone. This way basic human-vehicle interactions like unlocking/locking the car or starting the engine seamlessly integrate into ongoing human-smartphone interaction, which makes for better user experience.
Digital Key solutions also can help OEMs enhance security for car owners. They’ll be able to provision keys to other users just with a few taps on the smartphone’s screen. It will also take only so much effort to revoke keys. Buying a used car will also become safer: a new owner will be able to revoke all the keys that were provisioned by the previous owner.
Additional benefit of smartphone-to-car connectivity solutions for OEMs is an opportunity to collect more end-user data.
Fleet management
Fleet has always been up for change and adoption of the new digital technology that could improve the efficiency of operations. Many processes are already automated and performed in a digital way, and Digital Key solutions can complement existing technology ecosystem for fleet management.
One of the domains where the functionality of this smart device-based technology comes handy is key management. Adoption of the Digital Key reduces the number of contact points for key provisioning and optimizes the process of sharing and revoking the keys.
Same as OEMs, fleet can also use Digital Key-based software for data collection. For example, for tracking vehicles or staff performance, therefore optimizing fleet management activities and gaining an advantage in the industry.
Car rental and sharing
Car rental and sharing companies probably get the most benefits out of this emerging connectivity technology.
Thus, rental companies will expand the privacy and flexibility of the service. The rental agency will be the only contact point for the clients and there won’t be a need for visiting an office or going through complex identity authentication, therefore the rental process will become much simpler and quicker for end-users.
Rentals management will also get more efficient because of the easy handover and revoking of the keys. And most important: with the adoption of the Digital Key rental companies can try out new business models like car subscription service.
For car sharing companies Digital Key is as well a versatile tool for increased flexibility and productivity. Introducing digital car keys can help them streamline vehicle management and improve the security of remote and peer-to-peer key transfers.
Moreover, car sharing companies can expand their portfolio with additional services like parking sharing or access to storage lockers at train stations, and trunk delivery. That said, an interoperable smartphone-to-car connectivity solution can be a key to the future for most of the automotive companies, allowing them to adapt to the industry trends and grow their businesses.
Of course, OEMs and others will need an experienced vendor to create a secure and user-friendly key management solution. Read our latest report on R&D outsourcing in automotive for insights into setting up outsourced projects for success.
