A team up between Continental and NXP, has produced a concept car, shown at MWC this year, that showcased Near Field Communication (NFC) technology; highlighting how your mobile phone will enable you to interact with your car in new ways and ditch your keys for good.
Pocket-lint just couldn't resist getting hands-on and taking a few photos of what's in store for us, and our cars of the future.
The concept car, produced by Continental, the automotive supplier; and NXP, best known for all those NFC chips that you are starting to hear about, will enable the driver to open their car by simply walking up to it and triggering an authentication cycle between the phone’s secure element and the car.
Your car will then be able to give you a personal welcome, before setting preferences such as seat and mirror adjustments without you having to lift a finger.
By docking your phone into a built-in cradle you'll then be able to synch all the info on the handset, with the cars on-board entertainment presenting a selection of personal music choices, movies and setting up hands free calling - all very futuristic.
As well as taking care of all the entertainment, NFC will be able to give accurate readings of MPG and the like, and using GPS the location coordinates of the car can also be sent to the phone via NFC, enabling consumers to easily locate their vehicles in a new city or car park.
NFC is a short-range wireless technology which evolved from a combination of contactless identification (RFID) and interconnection technologies, and this shows that the tech can be used for a much wider set of uses than the most common application of contactless payments.
However, as the mobile phone becomes more central to our lives, keeping all the data stored it safe becomes an ever-more pressing issue. And even if all the data can be kept safe in the event of loss or damage; mislaying your mobile in the future is going to mean a serious headache.
Not to worry though, there's bound to be some special futuristic pill that'll make it all better.