The coming of a standardized authentication protocol for phones and cars, making various cars and mobile devices all interoperable.

用于电话和汽车的标准化身份验证协议的出现，使各种汽车和移动设备都可以互操作。

A few weeks ago BMW announced that in their latest collaboration with Apple they are the world's first car maker to offer drivers a digital car key on their iPhone. You guessed it — the digital car key would allow drivers to lock, unlock, and even start their BMW using the iPhone and Apple Watch.

几周前，宝马宣布，在与苹果公司的最新合作中，他们是世界上第一家在iPhone上为驾驶员提供数字汽车钥匙的汽车制造商。 您猜对了-数字汽车钥匙将允许驾驶员使用iPhone和Apple Watch锁定，解锁甚至启动BMW。

The feature is made available during summer 2020 on iOS 13, and Apple is working on bringing the feature to more cars next year.

该功能将于2020年夏季在iOS 13上提供，Apple致力于明年将该功能推广到更多汽车上。

Going back in time a bit, the first coming of this concept of using the phone as a supplementary car key took place back in 2015, now, with the second adaptation of the idea what exactly improved? Will this second approach ultimately change driver's habits or will it be simply another gimmick?

时光倒流，这种将手机用作辅助汽车钥匙的概念的首次出现是在2015年，现在，随着这种想法的第二次改进，究竟有什么改进？ 这第二种方法会最终改变驾驶员的习惯吗？或者仅仅是另一个头？

I think there is more than meets the eye.

我认为不只是眼神。

I am going to talk about a few developments that have occurred behind the scenes, which will put this announcement in its proper context.

我将谈谈幕后发生的一些事态发展，这将使这一宣布具有适当的背景。

You will be amazed that you could think about car keys for 7 minutes after reading this article.

阅读本文后7分钟内您会想到汽车钥匙，您会感到惊讶。

关键是用户界面 (The key is a user interface)

To better understand the evolution from a traditional car key to the digital one, we should first think about its purpose. Firstly, it obviously exists to ensure that only authorized users can access and control the car. But another way to look at it is through user experience discipline — the key serves as one of the many vital user interfaces in the context of the car.

为了更好地理解从传统汽车钥匙到数字钥匙的演变，我们应该首先考虑它的用途。 首先，显然存在确保只有授权用户才能访问和控制汽车的问题。 但是另一种看待它的方式是通过用户体验纪律-该键充当汽车环境中许多重要的用户界面之一。

A user interface is what lies between the user and the product feature — it is designed for us to have a way of telling machines what to do, and when to do it. Consequently, the car key is the one medium that enables us to tell our car from a distance when to lock, and when to unlock.

用户界面是介于用户和产品功能之间的界面，它的设计目的是让我们告诉机器要做什么以及何时去做。 因此，汽车钥匙是一种使我们能够远距离告诉我们汽车何时锁定以及何时解锁的媒介。

It is an inseparable interface within the user journey.

它是用户旅程中不可分割的界面。

With modern cars, this user interface has become somewhat invisible. If you are used to the so-called comfort entry system, then you know that the car has learned to be “aware” of the traditional key in your bag or a pocket and simply unlock and lock the vehicle as a response to you touching a designated area on the car door handle. These comfort entry systems, sometimes called “SmartKeys”, were first developed by Siemens in the mid-1990s and introduced by Mercedes-Benz in 1997 to replace the infrared security system introduced in 1989.

对于现代汽车，此用户界面已变得不可见。 如果您习惯了所谓的舒适进入系统，那么您就会知道汽车已经学会了“意识到”您的包或口袋中的传统钥匙，并简单地解锁和锁定车辆，作为对您触摸汽车的回应。车门把手上的指定区域。 这些舒适进入系统有时称为“ SmartKeys ”，由西门子于1990年代中期开发，并于1997年由梅赛德斯·奔驰引入，以取代1989年引入的红外安全系统。

The comfort entry systems worked great for a while. Until they didn't.

舒适进入系统在一段时间内运行良好。 直到他们没有。

Countless cars were stolen using a method that became known as a “relay attack.” I won't go into details of this vulnerability, but in short, it made people turn off the keyless entry functions, essentially making the feature useless.

无数汽车被称为“ 接力攻击 ”的方法被盗。 ”我不会进入这个漏洞的细节，但总之， 它使人们关闭无钥匙进入功能，从根本上让功能形同虚设。

Then came the first wave of digital keys embedded into smartphone apps that the carmakers provided to their customers.

随后是汽车制造商提供给客户的智能手机应用程序中嵌入的第一批数字密钥。

数字钥匙-短期发展 (Digital Key — the short evolution)

The first coming of the smartphone app as a car key was supposed to help with security, comfort, and meet the growing demands of the users. One of which was that users could open the vehicle remotely from miles away — for instance, to let a family member take out the golf clubs from the trunk in case the traditional key was not present. While a cool feature, it never really made drivers ditch their traditional keys. Why?

智能手机应用程序作为汽车钥匙首次出现是为了提高安全性，舒适性并满足用户不断增长的需求。 其中之一是，用户可以从几英里远的地方远程打开车辆，例如，如果没有传统钥匙，可以让家人从行李箱中取出高尔夫球杆。 虽然这是一个很酷的功能，但它从未真正使驾驶员放弃传统的按键。 为什么？

Using these apps on a daily basis was just too cumbersome. You had to pick out your phone, open the app, wait for it to connect to your vehicle, and then finally tap the unlock button. When leaving the car, do all this again.

每天使用这些应用程序太麻烦了。 您必须拿起手机，打开应用程序，等待其连接到车辆，然后最后点击解锁按钮。 离开汽车时，请再次执行所有操作。

So, simply creating a “smarter” alternative to one part of the user journey doesn’t mean people will be comfortable switching the whole journey. Even new automotive brands coming to the market have not able to set up their processes differently. Take Tesla, for example.

因此，仅仅为用户旅程的一部分创建一个“更智能”的替代方案并不意味着人们会很乐意切换整个旅程。 即使是新的汽车品牌，也无法以不同的方式设置其流程。 以特斯拉为例。

Tesla is a small enough company to have control over nearly every aspect of the user experience. And they understand the value of a great user experience better than most car manufacturers. But even Tesla has made an old thing only slightly better. The Model 3 key card fits into your wallet and their application works with proximity sensing, however, it only impacts part of the user journey while several other aspects have actually gotten worse for users. While unlocking the car has become digital, several other things have become too, and unnecessarily so.

特斯拉是一家规模很小的公司，可以控制用户体验的几乎各个方面。 他们比大多数汽车制造商更了解出色的用户体验的价值。 但即使是特斯拉，旧事物也只能稍微好一点。 Model 3钥匙卡适合您的钱包，其应用程序具有接近感应功能，但是，它仅影响用户旅程的一部分，而其他几个方面实际上对用户而言则更为糟糕。 在解锁汽车已成为数字化的同时，其他几件事也变得不必要了。

I found a perfect example illustrating this observation from a recent Reddit thread, where a user had switched his Tesla to a Golf after just a month, saying “Although (Golf is) a fast car, it’s not nearly as fast as the Tesla, but damn is it fun. And I love having regular door handles, a normal glovebox, a regular keyfob, etc. I just keep finding reasons to drive it.”

我从最近的Reddit线程中发现了一个完美的例子，该观察结果表明用户仅一个月后就将特斯拉换成了高尔夫，他说： “尽管(高尔夫是)快车，但速度不及特斯拉快，但该死的很有趣。 而且我喜欢常规的门把手，普通的手套箱，常规的钥匙扣 等。我一直在寻找驱动它的理由。”

I’m going to enjoy this Golf for as long as I can.

我将尽可能长时间地享受这场高尔夫。

I think this is what happens when companies digitalize old processes, instead of completely rethinking the fundamentals in a wider context. We need an organizing principle that is less about the ‘things’ and more about the people at the center of those things, and that is where I believe the big breakthrough with the Digital Key protocol lies.

我认为这是当公司对旧流程进行数字化处理时发生的事情，而不是在更广泛的范围内完全重新考虑基础知识。 我们需要一种组织原则，该原则不应该涉及“事物”，而应更多地关注那些事物的核心，这就是我相信数字密钥协议最大的突破所在。

数字钥匙2.0 (Digital Key 2.0)

Apple knows about organizing principles better than anyone. They made listening to music simple, they made wearables simple, and with the HomeKit they made the smart home simple.

苹果比任何人都更了解组织原则。 他们使听音乐变得简单，使可穿戴设备变得简单，并通过HomeKit使智能家居变得简单。

Therefore, I believe the BMW announcement about their latest collaboration with Apple has changed the car keys forever.

因此，我相信宝马关于与苹果公司最新合作的公告将永远改变汽车的钥匙。

Behind this news is the work on the Digital Key 2.0 standard that was released in early 2019. As a “standardized authentication protocol” for phones and cars, it is making various cars and mobile devices all interoperable. In other words, there is finally a kind of common language, a standardized set of rules and processes for using smart devices as replacements for car keys by enabling them to store, authenticate, and share secure tokens. While carmakers already have apps that can do similar things, Apple has utilized its secure hardware found in the iPhone and Apple Watch. That hardware ensures that the encryption keys that make the phone or watch talk to the car stay on the actual device. No one else, not even Apple, has access to that data.

该消息的背后是2019年初发布的Digital Key 2.0标准的工作。作为电话和汽车的“标准化身份验证协议”，它使各种汽车和移动设备都可以互操作。 换句话说，最终存在一种通用语言，这是一组标准化的规则和过程，用于通过使智能设备能够存储，认证和共享安全令牌来代替汽车钥匙。 尽管汽车制造商已经拥有可以做类似事情的应用程序，但苹果公司已经利用了iPhone和Apple Watch中的安全硬件 。 该硬件可确保使电话或手表与汽车通话的加密密钥保留在实际设备上。 没有人可以访问该数据，甚至苹果也没有。

Marry this standard to Apple's ecosystem and the Apple Wallet and you have a perfect mix of technology and flexibility made accessible to every user. For many, the Apple Wallet has made the need to carry our physical wallets obsolete. We have gotten used to the convenience of making payments using Apple Pay by placing our phones near compatible card terminals. It is only a small step from this to doing the same with car doors.

将此标准与Apple的生态系统和Apple Wallet结合使用，您可以将技术和灵活性完美地结合在一起，使每个用户都可以使用。 对于许多人而言，Apple Wallet已使携带实物钱包的需求过时了。 通过将手机放在兼容的卡终端附近，我们已经习惯了使用Apple Pay付款的便利。 从这到使用车门同样只是一小步。

Another advantage provided by Apple's ecosystem —making these Digital Keys easily shareable. On the BMW, an owner can share the key with five others via Apple’s iMessage texting app with either full access or a restricted driving profile that lets the owner of the vehicle preset top speed limits, horsepower, maximum radio volume, and other features.

苹果生态系统提供的另一个优势-使这些数字密钥易于共享。 在BMW上， 车主可以通过Apple的iMessage短信应用程序与其他五个人共享钥匙，该应用程序具有完全访问权限或受限制的行驶配置文件，使车主可以预设最高速度限制，马力，最大收音机音量和其他功能。

The right fundamentals are now in place. It can only get better from here.

正确的基础现已到位。 从这里只能变得更好。

数字钥匙3.0 —车门把手 (Digital Key 3.0 — the car door handle)

According to the organization behind the standard the next generation of Digital Key, the Release 3.0 specification, is already under development. It will leverage technologies already present in iPhone and Apple Watches (but not yet in cars) to support user experience similar to the keyless entry systems present in today's cars. As a result, your future car will recognize you on its own simply based on the devices you have on you. Imaginative readers can already see some interesting possibilities — for instance, using gestures with Apple Watch to perform various actions around the car.

根据该标准背后的组织，下一代数字钥匙(版本3.0规范)已经在开发中。 它将利用iPhone和Apple Watch中已经存在的技术(但尚未在汽车中使用)来提供类似于当今汽车中的无钥匙进入系统的用户体验。 因此，您的未来汽车将仅根据您所拥有的设备自己识别您。 富有想象力的读者已经可以看到一些有趣的可能性，例如，使用Apple Watch的手势在汽车周围执行各种动作。

Consequently, the iPhone as the primary user interface will move to the background, once again making the door handle the first thing you touch when entering the car.

因此，iPhone作为主要的用户界面将移至后台，再次使门把手成为您上车时首先触摸的东西。

最后的话 (Final words)

The announcement from BMW marks the coming of a standardized authentication protocol for phones and cars, making various cars and mobile devices all interoperable. From my own experience, the standardization around this area was long overdue. It will offer sizeable time and cost savings when made available to the developers creating the new mobility companies. The rental firms and other fleet operators will be first to see their businesses transform. The need to equip cars with specialized hardware simply becomes redundant.

BMW的宣布标志着手机和汽车标准化认证协议的到来，使各种汽车和移动设备都可以互操作。 根据我自己的经验，早就应该进行这方面的标准化。 当创建新的出行公司的开发人员可以使用它时，它将节省大量时间和成本。 租赁公司和其他车队运营商将首先看到他们的业务转型。 为汽车配备专用硬件的需求变得多余。

Thanks to the lower entry barrier offered by this standardization we may see other benefits to drivers, too. In a not-too-distant future, the Apple Wallet may store your government IDs, social insurance cards, and your driver's license.

由于此标准化提供的较低的进入壁垒，我们也可能会为驾驶员带来其他好处。 在不久的将来，Apple Wallet可能会存储您的政府ID，社会保险卡和驾照。

But until then, your leather wallet will live another day.

但在那之前，您的皮革钱包将再活一次。