>FRANKFURT -- BMW is reviewing the necessity of car keys, Ian Robertson, the company's board member responsible for sales told Reuters.
>The fact that customers now all carry a smartphone and the availability of a BMW App which allows customers to unlock their vehicle, has made old fashioned keys less relevant.
>"Honestly, how many people really need it?" Robertson said in an interview at the Frankfurt car show, explaining that customers no longer had to put the key in the ignition to make the car start.
>"They never take it out of their pocket, so why do I need to carry it around?," Robertson said, adding that the company was looking at getting rid of keys altogether.
lol
Hunter Nelson
"progress"
Juan Martinez
what could go wrong
Ryder Sanchez
This is fucking stupid, why is modern bmw so dumb compared to the old days?
Sebastian Scott
Oh good. And I'll have to link it to my phone number, google account, retinal scan, and finger prints to activate?
All I have to do is buy the BMW app rite? But the first 6mo comes free with purchase?
Gavin Richardson
"courage"
Alexander Ortiz
wanna drive your brand new 330i off the lot? too bad asshole, your phone is dead.
Brayden Campbell
>removing the manly symbolism of inserting a shaft into a hole
I will never buy a new car, fuck these idiots! Its not like i cant afford it anyway!
Henry Cook
I actually support this. Ill miss turning a physical key, but they can still have a push button to start the car. And it reduces bulk in my Veeky Forums skinny jeans
Ian Davis
But I have enough pockets to fit my key fob, it's a non-issue.
Luke Nelson
>phone dies >can't unlock or start car >literally any way around this involves carrying a key or fob anyway GG BMW, no re
Sebastian Perez
>the company's board member responsible for sales Dropped.
Austin Flores
>go to fancy restaurant >have to give valet my phone so he can park my car ???
Tyler Hernandez
>bopard of directors says something stupid >engineers and sales say that's fucking retarded >board goes back to being a think take >repeat ad nauseam
Jayden Brooks
Enough time to park far away and leak nudes from the roastie with the X3 tho, there's a silver lining in anything.
Isaac Richardson
>Battery dies >You can't enter your luxury car on a freezing night >The intern gets in his 1994 Civic hatch and VTECs past you
Thanks BMW, you really do provide the Ultimate Driving Machineā¢
Isaiah Lee
Your key battery could die too asshole
Jeremiah Carter
Spare, nigger.
John King
>casuaI racism: the post Wow
Jordan Cruz
>typical BMW owner >so fucking stupid they lose their keys half the time >and their phone the other half >now you can fuck yourself twice as hard with a single error
BMWfags gonna get BTFO by their own stupidity.
Isaac Martinez
>he got triggered by pewdiepie
wew
Liam Lewis
Jesus Christ dude literally fuck off right back to whatever shithole site you came from, Reddit or Tumblr either way fuck off
Jose Wilson
joke's on you, i was only pretending to be retarded
Alexander Richardson
That was the original plan for the Model X, but keys were added just before launch. The keys still use bluetooth instead of just LF antennas for this reason.
John James
Triggered lol
Leo Gomez
>key battery dies >can still insert key into door and ignition
Jace Wright
Key battery?
The only thing in keys that use batteries are the remote section. Any section associated with starting the car generally uses RFID which only requires the car to be have a charge.
Brandon Robinson
ugh... old people who think "yeah the kids will love this" are annoying as fuck.
all this smart phone bullshit, everything in life requires a god damned smart phone these days and some fucking app.
Mason Sanders
now the model 3 is really killing the key. You have a nfc card that you swipe at the b pillar. But, that's really just the backup. It uses low power BT from your phone, which syncs your presets as you step inside.So it'll have adjusted the seats to your liking before you even sit down; makes it easy when more than one person drives it
Grayson Roberts
Not when you are talking about new cars, which use constant LF to see where the key is, authorize different actions (auto unlock, walk away lock, starting the car, etc.). Now only a handful of cars like Teslas and the S Class do things like this, but in a decade all these things and more will be commonplace. Makes sense to use something nearly anyone purchasing a new, expensive vehicle has (a phone) vs. making more expensive/advanced keys.
Nolan Perez
Yeah..... even cars the us LF always generally have an RFID backup...
Oliver Rivera
Or you could just use a key.
Luis Jackson
Actually this happened to me the other day I have a saab and those keys don't fit into the door. In fact I didn't even realise there was a key hole to get into my car, on the passenger side. What happened was I called the roadside assistant and a guy arrived half an hour later. He told me he couldn't do anything if he couldn't get in the car, which he couldn't because the remote's battery was dead. He called someone else to come who came 2 hours later. Then I tell him what's wrong and I give him the key and he says "I'm pretty sure these have a...", pushed the little saab logo on the back of the key, pulled the top of the remote and out came a physical key >mfw
Michael Scott
>Or you could just use a key. Making one off keys that can do all that is very expensive. Using a phone that the customer already owns that has lots of processing power is free. People don't like getting charged $300 for a key when they lose it, or $1000 + for a module once too many keys have been programmed a la BMW
>but I don't need no fancy stuff I'm a real red blooded Murican just need muh old fashioned key none of that gay automated shit Cool, sounds like you shouldn't buy a high tech range topper. However, a huge market exists that is interested in these features and unlike you they can actually afford to buy a new luxury car.
Joshua Howard
I can get a key cut at home depot for pennies that does all that. The only thing it doesn't do is I actually need to go through the awful torture of putting it in the lock and turning it.
Cameron Lopez
>GERMAN >ENGINEERING
Owen Butler
Now, I'll give you it's mildly fun that I can just walk up to my car and it goes >BEEP actually, not. I don't really want my car to beep
>door opens for me >OPEN SESAME I AM GREAT, ALL POWERFUL HA HA HA HA whatever
I still push the lock button on the way out so the power locks go, and I don't need my key for that. Nor do I need to have a big ugly start button so I can't even control the starter motor and the car starts getting angry and beeping at me if something is wrong with my shebolith of key use (MULTI-KEY DRIFTING MUCH CONCERN) and then there are 50 more things to break one day when it starts to get old.
There's a reason why people who live in the real world get bits welded or bolted on to their doors so they can hang padlocks on them.
Nathaniel Williams
Out of curiosity have keyless ignitions prevented car thefts or anything? I'm genuinely curious what advantage there is over old keys besides the lock wearing out and the 1 second it takes to put your key in. I think some people have actually had their car stolen because they left the keyfob in the car, but setting that aside, does it make them harder to steal?
Eli Roberts
>There's a reason why people who live in the real world get bits welded or bolted on to their doors so they can hang padlocks on them.
Alexander Scott
>Dumb Nu-male loses his Iphone X >freaks out and can't use his car starts crying >laugh at him and put my flip phone in my pocket,turn the ignition on my E36 and drive away Stupid kids and their new technolomgy shits
Michael Thomas
I've heard locking wheel nuts have earned lots of money for shops who can take them off for you after you lost the key you can get for $5 on Amazon.
Connor Garcia
It would prevent (or at least complicate) traditional car theft methods like hot wiring or just forcing the key ignition unit but when has that ever stopped thieves?
Austin Reed
Oh yeah, that hot wiring epidemic. It's almost as bad as those guys who crack your safe!
Angel Carter
Stealing a car is really hard now. It used to happen all the fucking time. Any nigger with a flat head screw driver could do it. Not anymore.
Ryder Sullivan
>expansion tank cracks and engine warps
heh
Kayden Hall
(you)
Gavin Green
D-Dont worry that can b-be fixed easliy right? Better than a-a keyless car
Oliver Jackson
gabe go practice your drums man
Ethan Diaz
now the screwdriver is just software and literally ANYONE could do it, but hurr computers is too hard
Carson Jenkins
GAY
Julian Ward
I've been using just a key to open the doors and for ignition for so long that I forgot that those wireless button things even exist.
Hudson Rivera
Why the hell are G*rman companies so hellbent on being complete cancer?
Benjamin Rogers
>now they can track us via the BMW key app and sell our data to make extra money
I have a Nissan LEAF. which was that wireless key fob.
my main worry is someone cracking the key encryption and clone my key. big enough antenna with an amplifier, and you could read the car's key codes from any distance, as long as you have line of sight.
Jaxson Harris
...
Nicholas Roberts
Why don't these Orwellian government punks implement RFID and facial recognition in their cars already? It's obviously what they want.
Their attempts in being subtle and careful to not enrage the public is tiring me.
Nolan Ortiz
shut up nigger
Samuel Morales
Normies destroyed it.
Just look at the X1,X4,X6 and 2 Series
Cooper Smith
>2 Series
The 2 series is literally the best normal BMW nowadays, eat dikke.
Camden Nelson
>The fact that customers now all carry a smartphone lol
Camden Scott
trips of truth.
my friend who has an '08 E90 accidentally dropped his phone while getting out and he was re-adjusting his parking, ended up crushing his xperia.
Caleb Hernandez
It's no secret that car companies want people to subscribe to their own apps with subscription fees. GM has app subscription fees thru your OnStar account and those apps can access more info about the car you can't see otherwise as well as provide additional control features.
Once people get used to paying an automatically renewed monthly app fee, the car companies will continue to make money on the car after the new car sale. And those who buy used cars will continue to give the car company more money thru app fees. Thus a used car is no longer a parasite upon new car sales.
In order to create this environment, car owners need to be steered towards an app-centric environment. Having phones serve as the ignition key is one psychological step towards that.
Jason Lopez
>when has that ever stopped thieves? It ups the ante for thieves to mug you for your phone now. In winter, I keep the phone in the inside sealed pocket of the jacket. But in summertime, the phone is too vulnerable as there is no jacket to shield the phone from snatching.
Jonathan Allen
MY EXPANSION TANK IS CRACKED REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE pic related....i dont overheat tho...yet
Michael Garcia
Enjoy not being able to get into your car if the battery dies.
At least these shitty key fobs usually have a backup key hidden in them which you can put in through a hidden key hole in the door.
Nicholas Flores
Christ I'm sick of this shit. I admit that I am guilty of liking having internet and a decent/good camera on a single device, yet this is getting out of hand. >The fact that customers now all carry a smartphone and the availability of a BMW App I don't want this shit. I am sick of being forced into the smartphone industry. I already fear they have all sort of data about me as is, since Google for instance isn't exactly privacy-happy (don't know about Apple and Micro$oft, but can assume the same). And come to think about it, it will further ensure the monopoly of Android and iOS devices. Same shit happened to Steam, for a reason they thought it's a good idea to have a smartphone if you want to use their whole service, yet from what I heard there is no native program for Windows Phone devices. Even fucking BlackBerry had to convert to Android to survive the market.
Tyler Jenkins
Worse. New cars being so hard to steal means that carjackings have gotten more common.
Sebastian Garcia
iOS is at least architected to be very secure, so unless Apple built in a back door (which no one seems to suspect so far) you can turn off all the info sharing and have it be private. With Android I can give no such assurance, though.
Kayden Sanchez
>apple didn't build a back door >one of the most popular platforms isn't back doored and zero-dayed to hell and back
How can macfags possibly be this delusional?
Austin Hall
all this tech and still no one has invented a mechanism that stops you from accidentally hitting the adjacent car when opening the door
COME ON YOU GERMAN FAGGOTS
Hunter Sanders
>bmw's head of marketing says current manual transmissions can't cope with the torque >bmw's head of sales says car keys are unnecessary
What is it that makes sales and marketing absolute retards?
Joseph Sanders
So if your smartphone is discharghed you can't open your car? Wonderful
Blake Long
>You have way to high expectations for yuropoors user.
Brandon Adams
Might be the most retarded thing I've read yet today
Ryan Evans
I was with you till that last bit Wut
Jeremiah Thomas
Cars are just going through the companion app phase There's a reason this shit died in vidya
Aaron Morris
Wait, are companion apps still a thing? I thought that died back in 2013 with that autistic iFruit shit.
Asher Wright
No its pretty much dead except for iFruit because you can use it to get vanity plates and special colors >customize your guns at work >play as commander on your tablet What an interesting time that was
Jordan Phillips
I like the general idea of reducing bulk in your pockets but why can't they just make a small passive nfc sticker that you place on your phone, driver's license, house key or wherever and that automatically unlocks the car when it's within half a meter distance or so
Parker Collins
There were already cases of modern cars being hacked or opened with a nigger rigged remote.