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Soon, you may no longer have any use for your physical keychain.

A smartphone and car manufacturer consortium published the specs for a digital key that could work across devices and car models on Wednesday. The group is called the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC), and its stakeholders include Apple, LG, and Samsung, as well as Volkswagen, Audi, GM, and more.

Yep, that means with the backing of Apple and Samsung, you could use either your iPhone or your Galaxy to unlock a variety of car models. It's a little thing we like to call "interoperability," folks.

SEE ALSO:Home smart home: A history of connected household tech

Some car manufacturers already offer digital keys that pair your smartphone with your car — notably Tesla. But if every car manufacturer comes up with a different system, that could lead to a huge hassle for car owners. Not to mention a whole lot of extra time and expense for manufacturers to develop multiple identical systems.

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The digital key would lock, unlock, start the engine, and share access to the car. The CCC is using existing technologies, like Near-field communication (NFC) and Trusted Service Manager (TSM) infrastructure, to make the universal digital key happen. The organization's role is to basically bring everyone together in order to standardize how these existing technologies work together and with different phone and car models.

Credit: Car connectivity consortium

The CCC released specs for a 1.0 digital key, but a 2.0 is already in the works, scheduled for release in Q1 of 2019. The difference between the two versions is about ease of use and scalability. 1.0 would require set-up by manufacturers. Whereas 2.0 is something smartphone users could set up all on their own.

We've reached out to CCC to learn how long it might be until the standardized digital key makes it to market, and will update this story when we hear back.

So is the keyless future on its way? With the rise of smart homes, probably. But don't throw away that fluffy keychain just yet.

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TopicsCarsInnovations