4Focus
ROB MARSHALL LOOKS AT THE LATEST NEW CAR TECH INNOVATIONS, ALL WITH A DISTINCT GERMANIC FEEL
BMW – MOST NEW MODELS – BMW DIGITAL KEY/BMW DIGITAL KEY PLUS The keyless entry system has allowed car thieves to replace their hammers, chisels and wire-cutters with more discrete and sophisticated electrical devices. Rather than suffer the ignominy of reintroducing the humble ignition key, carmakers have tried to keep one step ahead of the criminal fraternity. Yet, considering the numbers of modern vehicles that are going AWOL, they do not seem to be winning. Working with Google and Samsung, BMW's latest addition to keyless tech is to utilise that piece of technology that we all (albeit some reluctantly) carry with us: the mobile telephone. Just as some banking apps permit touchless payments, by just presenting the screen, so too can a driver unlock and lock a Bimmer, by holding the 'phone against the driver's side door handle. When the 'phone is ensconced within the centre console's wireless charging compartment, it authorises the immobiliser to permit an engine start. The system is configured on the 'My BMW' App, making the Digital Key a potential option for almost all current production BMW cars. To reassure critics, BMW says that the
BMW Digital Key is stored on "the secure element of the smartphone", whatever that means. Even so, development is ongoing and BMW plans to extend the Digital Key capability beyond Samsung Galaxy S21 and Google Pixel 6 devices in the future. In addition, upcoming releases will see digital keys for the same vehicle being transferred between up to five smartphones. If holding a 'phone close to the door handle remains too much of an inconvenience, BMW Digital Key Plus can be used with smartphones that possess an ultra wideband frequency (UWB) facility instead of just Near Field Communication (NFC). It is also said that UWB signals can be neither jammed, nor intercepted (yet).
VOLKSWAGEN 4-CYLINDER DIESELS – RENEWABLE FUEL COMPATIBILITY
NEW CAR TECH
Considering that diesel is promoted as demonic, it is courageous for certain car manufacturers not to sign the COP-26 agreement to end the sale of fossil-fuelled vehicles, because so many uncertainties remain. One would have thought that Volkswagen, the whipping-boy (but not the sole sinner) of 'diesel-gate,' would be determined to repent and sign on the dotted line. Yet, it did not.
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Going further, it has announced an intention to continue its combustion engine developments in parallel to expanding its electric offerings. As the company plans to reduce the 2030 CO2 emissions of its fleet by 40%, it sees diesel as an essential part of that ambition. By doing so, it says that the Volkswagen Group is responding to different customer needs, while taking into account the different drive system preferences of its global customers. Therefore, it has announced that its four-cylinder diesel engines, made from June 2021, can run on renewable fuels, which comply with the EN15940 European standard. The company reports that these newly developed bio-diesel fuels represent CO2 savings of between 70-95 per cent. They are produced from biological residual and waste materials (such as cooking oil and sawdust), which are converted into hydrocarbons by a reaction with hydrogen. Paraffinic diesel fuels can already be found on the market as a pure fuel, but it is added to some blends of standard pump diesel to a 7% maximum, including Shell's V-Power diesel. Volkswagen predicts that e-fuels will be available in the future, produced from regenerative sources using CO2 and electricity, meaning that the combustion engine still has a future relevance.
