[Kaneki]

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Hello fellow car enthusiasts,

I have a question regarding the new BMW G82C xDrive with Comfort Access iDrive8 that I've ordered, which is due for production in July 2023. If I understand correctly, this would be a 2024 model, right?

I'm specifically curious about the Digital Key Plus feature. My understanding is that this technology allows you to unlock the car without the need to take your phone out of your pocket. I know there's a version where you have to touch the door handle with your phone, but I'm particularly interested in the "ultra-wideband" technology version that only requires you to have your phone on your person.

So my main question is, will my car come with this Digital Key Plus feature, allowing proximity unlocking, or will it still require physical contact with the phone to the door handle?

[Asmedbeats]

Unfortunately no. I had the same hope when I found out my g80 was coming with idrive8.

[DO444]

Originally Posted by Kaneki

Hello fellow car enthusiasts,

I have a question regarding the new BMW G82C xDrive with Comfort Access iDrive8 that I've ordered, which is due for production in July 2023. If I understand correctly, this would be a 2024 model, right?

I'm specifically curious about the Digital Key Plus feature. My understanding is that this technology allows you to unlock the car without the need to take your phone out of your pocket. I know there's a version where you have to touch the door handle with your phone, but I'm particularly interested in the "ultra-wideband" technology version that only requires you to have your phone on your person.

So my main question is, will my car come with this Digital Key Plus feature, allowing proximity unlocking, or will it still require physical contact with the phone to the door handle?

Forgive me if I misunderstand, but doesn’t comfort access already lock and unlock the doors as you approach… without needing anything in your hand?

I guess the particular situation you are looking for is, not having any keys with you and wanting the car to unlock and lock on approach (like it did if you had a key in your pocket), but with your phone?

So, if you only had a phone you’d need to touch it to the door handle?

Is that correct?

Haven’t tried this, but does the keycard they give you also work with comfort access as the key does, or does that need to touch the door handle?

There’s so many different ways to open the vehicle…

[Kaneki]

I've been doing some further research on this and I found in the BMW FAQ that the Digital Key Plus feature is available for BMW vehicles with Operating System 8, along with the "BMW Teleservices" (SA 6AE) and "Comfort Access" (SA 322) options.
I have confirmed that my car comes with both of these options.

Originally Posted by DO444

Forgive me if I misunderstand, but doesn’t comfort access already lock and unlock the doors as you approach… without needing anything in your hand?

I guess the particular situation you are looking for is, not having any keys with you and wanting the car to unlock and lock on approach (like it did if you had a key in your pocket), but with your phone?

So, if you only had a phone you’d need to touch it to the door handle?

Is that correct?

Haven’t tried this, but does the keycard they give you also work with comfort access as the key does, or does that need to touch the door handle?

There’s so many different ways to open the vehicle…

Yes, comfort access does allow the vehicle to lock and unlock as you approach, but with the BMW Digital Key feature, I can configure my iPhone to act as a digital key. This means I wouldn't need to have anything else on me other than my phone to lock/unlock the car and start the engine.

The ultra-wideband technology (UWB), which is included in the Digital Key Plus, allows this to happen without taking the phone out of my pocket. In the original version, you had to touch your phone to the door handle, but the newer version works so that I just need to have the phone in my pocket, reach for the handle and the car unlocks, I get in and start it. In the older version, I had to place the phone on a specific shelf.

Videos:

Digital Key (old one)

Digital Key Plus (new one)

[chris3g]

It doesn’t have the UWB antenna so no digital key plus.

I personally use the standard digital key exclusively and find it to be good enough, but I have an Apple Watch and primarily use that to unlock and lock the car. Taking the phone out to lock and unlock every time would probably be too annoying to the point that I would just carry the key.