Volvo is taking steps to become the first car manufacturer to sell a car without a key. You'll still be able to get in using an app and your smartphone's Bluetooth.

Volvo says it will begin rolling out cars without keys this year. Should a buyer want a key, that's also an option. What you're supposed to do if you don't go for a key and your phone dies is not clear.

The plus side of this means that an app can be used to make your car access smart. That means unlocking from anywhere, starting the car remotely and having multiple keys. This should make car sharing easy among multiple owners. It also makes putting multiple car keys in one app a possibility too.

Volvo appears, initially, to be pushing this as a way to get easier access to hire cars. Rather than queuing to rent one you'll be able to do it on the app, find the car via GPS, and simply get in and go. This should also make any future car sharing schemes far easier to manage and run.

This follows Volvo's delivery service introduced in Sweden where a person could have shopping delivered to their car while parked near the shops via a one time digital key.

Volvo will begin rolling out the keyless systems to its rental cars in spring 2016 and then to consumer models from 2017.

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