At the Mobile World Congress this year, NXP Semiconductors N.V. and automotive supplier Continental are showcasing a technology concept car which demonstrates how near field communication (NFC) technology introduces new ways for people to interact with their car. NFC is a short-range wireless technology which facilitates the secure exchange of data and is being increasingly adopted by mobile phone manufacturers. NFC combined with an embedded secure element offers consumers a high level of convenience, interactivity and security with their mobile devices and, as illustrated at Mobile World Congress, it can be used for much more than the broadly discussed use cases of payments and ticketing and become an integral part of consumer’s everyday life.

The Continental concept car, on show in the NXP booth (hall 1 1F14) at Mobile World Congress, demonstrates how NXP’s NFC technology and Continental’s automotive expertise will enable new applications to enter the automotive market, merging the consumer’s mobile experiences with those of the car. Using NFC consumers can open their car in the morning by presenting their NFC enabled phone to the door, triggering an authentication cycle between the phone’s secure element and the car. The car will give the driver a personal welcome message, set their comfort preferences and then by simply placing the phone in a dock on the dashboard, it becomes part of the on-board entertainment and communication system, presenting a selection of personal music choices, facilitating audio streaming and setting up hands free calling. The secure mobile device can also disarm the engine immobilizer and allow the engine to start and the NFC phone is able to receive important diagnostic data such as fuel consumption, mileage and service data to be viewed away from the car at a later time. 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 large parking lot.

NXP and Continental have a long history in cooperating on the development of keyless entry systems, and with the growing interest in NFC technology the two companies are now taking this secure application to the mobile phone. Adding NFC connectivity to the key or the car directly are options any automotive OEM can consider, the NFC enabled mobile device will become part of an enhanced extended dashboard.

“NXP and Continental have been working together for many years, delivering significant innovations such as keyless entry systems and now, the world’s first NFC concept car. Imagine, with an NFC enabled mobile device, we’ll be able to easily and seamlessly interact with technology and applications as we transit between our home and office, making driving a truly personal experience,” said Ruediger Stroh, executive vice president and general manager, Identification Business, NXP Semiconductors “NFC is a technology that is transforming how we interact with technology around us. This concept car is an amazing example of how we will all use NFC in our cars in the next few years and, as an increasing number of NFC-enabled handsets with embedded secure elements enter the market, we now begin to see the development of increasingly innovative applications, which put the mobile phone at the heart of the consumer experience”,

“Near Field Communication is a step forward that we make with our technology partner NXP in order to turn our vision of Always-on into a reality,” said Andreas Wolf, head of the body and security business unit, Continental. “With NFC we will help car manufacturers worldwide connect future cars more smoothly to fast, evolving consumer electronics. We will see totally new functions facilitated by the NFC-based connections between cars and mobile phones.”

NXP is a world leader in secure Identification technologies with breakthrough products such as the SmartMX and SmartMX2 range of secure microcontrollers and its IntegralSecurityTM architecture. NXP is also market leader in vehicle immobilization and keyless entry products that enable Smart Entry/Go System to deploy their performance and convenience benefits to the driver. Every second car being sold today is equipped with an immobilizer or keyless entry chip made by NXP. In total more than 500 million keys rely on NXP’s immobilization and keyless technology.

To experience this NFC powered vehicle and learn more about the potential applications of the technology at Mobile World Congress visit booth 1F14 (Hall 1) to meet with NXP Semiconductors.

We will, however, have footage of this car and a full tour of the NXP NFC offering later next week right here on this blog and over at C-ITV, so look out for it!