Your iPhone, Apple Watch May Soon Be Able To Unlock A Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz Group ADR MBGYY MBGAF reportedly plans to launch digital car key support for Apple Inc.’s AAPL iPhone and Apple Watch.

What Happened: Mercedes-Benz is joining the growing list of car manufacturers offering support for Apple’s Car Key feature, which enables users to use their iPhones and Watch as virtual keys, as per a tech developer.

See Also: Apple WWDC 2023: 5 Features To Expect From iOS 17 For The iPhone

Last month, Nicolas Alvarez spotted some updates to Apple’s back-end configuration. He has now shared the discovery via Twitter handle @aaronp613, indicating that Mercedes-Benz has been included in the digital car key feature configuration files. 

For the unversed, the Apple Car Key feature was first announced at WWDC 2020 as part of the iOS 14 release. The feature was designed to enable drivers to use their iPhone and Apple Watch as an alternative way to unlock and start their cars. 

Why It’s Important: In April 2023, Mercedes-Benz confirmed that its new E-Class sedan would also support the digital car key feature as part of the KEYLESS-GO Comfort Package. 

Several other car makers, including BMW, BYD, Genesis, Hyundai and Kia, have introduced support for Apple’s digital car key feature on select models. Recently, Lotus was also discovered in Apple’s configuration files as another brand to offer support for the feature in the coming days, MacRumors reported. 

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