We’re slowly moving to a world where the traditional wallet and car keys are things of the past, and everything is handled by your smartphone. This week, Hyundai’s Genesis brand launched the GV60 electric vehicle, and it can be unlocked and started using Samsung smartphones with UWB.
Hyundai released details on the Genesis GV60 EV earlier this week, as our colleagues over at Electrek covered. The TL;DR: The new car starts at under $60K with three years of free charging in the US, around 250 miles of range, and a premium package on the whole.
But one thing that might catch the attention of smartphone enthusiasts is the car’s support for UWB keys. UWB, ultra-wideband, is slowly catching on in the Android world on phones such as the Pixel 6 Pro, but no one supports the feature better than Samsung. While the feature can be used for tracking tags and more, one of its most exciting use cases is for a digital car key.
With the Genesis GV60, Samsung is finally getting to flex that ability. A Digital Key for the GV60 can be created within Samsung Pass. From there, the phone can unlock your car when you get in range and act as an authentication for starting the vehicle. This functionality also allows for remote start and the ability to share your key with another user, granting them temporary access to the vehicle.
Samsung goes over how to set up a digital car key for the Genesis GV60 in a detailed post.
The following Samsung smartphones support UWB on the Genesis GV60.
- Galaxy S22 Ultra
- Galaxy S22+
- Galaxy Z Fold 3
- Galaxy S21 Ultra
- Galaxy S21+
- Galaxy Z Fold 2
- Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
Of course, the GV60 isn’t the first vehicle to support Digital Key on Samsung phones. In fact, older Genesis vehicles have supported the same feature, as have cars from BMW, Kia, and more. The primary difference here is that the GV60 EV is using UWB, which was rarely used previously.
