Apple Key coming to Lucid

[allenmhc]

Just saw this article claiming that the Apple Wallet PaaK is coming to Lucid brands, which they announced during WWDC but now it's "soon":

Car Keys are coming to the Wallet app for 13 new vehicle brands soon - 9to5Mac

Apple recently announced 13 new vehicle brands that will soon support Car Key in the Wallet app for iPhone and Apple Watch. Here’s the list.

9to5mac.com

I'm assuming it'll be both for the Air and Gravity, though with Apple CarPlay and what I'm guessing is certification delays I wouldn't be surprised with a staggered rollout either. Exciting, though, if it comes to the Gravity soon; it'd help alleviate a lot of the fob-related problems right now by just going around it entirely, and I haven't had the app fail to reach and control the car yet.

 

[californiaboy935]

@borski is going to be so happy!! And me too for my Air.

 

[Jeffgtx]

This is an exciting feature. Happy to see it might be soon.

 

[socktucker]

I’ve never had an iPhone key but I’ll try it

 

[knewman]

It's been discussed here before, I believe the consensus has been that it is coming to Gravity but Air does not have the necessary hardware for this feature.

 

[RandomDesign]

It's been discussed here before, I believe the consensus has been that it is coming to Gravity but Air does not have the necessary hardware for this feature.

I find that hard to believe, if the Air already supports bluetooth PaaK through it's app it should work with Wallet as long as Lucid enables it.

 

[Ron_Burgundy]

I find that hard to believe, if the Air already supports bluetooth PaaK through it's app it should work with Wallet as long as Lucid enables it.

So Apple’s Car key or whatever they call it requires UWB (as well as Bluetooth) and Airs don’t have UWB (they use only Bluetooth for PaaK).

Of course, maybe the new 2026 Airs have UWB, but older ones do not so they can not work with Apple’s key.

 

[californiaboy935]

So Apple’s Car key or whatever they call it requires UWB (as well as Bluetooth) and Airs don’t have UWB (they use only Bluetooth for PaaK).

Of course, maybe the new 2026 Airs have UWB, but older ones do not so they can not work with Apple’s key.

Throwing shade at my dreams .

Maybe CCV2 added it XD

 

[RandomDesign]

So Apple’s Car key or whatever they call it requires UWB (as well as Bluetooth) and Airs don’t have UWB (they use only Bluetooth for PaaK).

Of course, maybe the new 2026 Airs have UWB, but older ones do not so they can not work with Apple’s key.

I didn't remember UWB being a specific requirement when I read the docs on it a while back but Apple says NFC or Bluetooth/UWB so maybe they can do it on the Air using NFC:

Keys are created by connecting (or pairing) an iPhone with an owned and supported vehicle. All keys are created inside Secure Element based on elliptic curve (NIST P-256) on-board key generation (ECC-OBKG), and the private keys never leave the Secure Element. Communication between devices and the vehicle uses either NFC or a combination of Bluetooth® LE and Ultra-WideBand (UWB). Key management uses an Apple to automaker server API with mutually authenticated TLS.

 

[Ron_Burgundy]

I didn't remember UWB being a specific requirement when I read the docs on it a while back but Apple says NFC or Bluetooth/UWB so maybe they can do it on the Air using NFC:

It looks like if you use NFC, it’s NFC only. So you can tap your phone on the car. I’d rather “old school” Bluetooth PaaK…time will tell.

 

[Alex]

It looks like if you use NFC, it’s NFC only. So you can tap your phone on the car. I’d rather “old school” Bluetooth PaaK…time will tell.

You can also tap your Apple Watch. Same "mechanism" that is used for HomeKit keys.

 

[borski]

I think this is Gravity-only, but I'd love to be wrong.

 

[HC_79]

I think this is Gravity-only, but I'd love to be wrong.

I thought I heard somewhere that it would be Air and Gravity but as the Air is NFC only the phone is going to need to be pretty close to the b-pillar to unlock. Gravity using UWB has more flexibility to unlock being in the vicinity of the car. I could be wrong about what I heard on the Air though.

Regardless, all the issues Lucid is having with the Gravity UWB functionality I doubt they're going to have much luck getting through Apples strict certification requirements to use it. No way is Apple going to allow Apple Key to be so hit and miss in unlocking \ starting the car. So, until Lucid figures out how to stabilize its key issues I don't see Apple Key coming anytime soon.

 

[borski]

Regardless, all the issues Lucid is having with the Gravity UWB functionality I doubt they're going to have much luck getting through Apples strict certification requirements to use it. No way is Apple going to allow Apple Key to be so hit and miss in unlocking \ starting the car. So, until Lucid figures out how to stabilize its key issues I don't see Apple Key coming anytime soon.

I'm actually not convinced Apple's Digital Key wouldn't work better. If, for example, the issue with Gravity isn't the security system but an issue with the fob wakefulness, then Apple Key may be perfect, as it would resolve all my issues. Of course they'd still need to fix the fob (which they may have already done), but I don't see why or how that would affect the digital key.

Meanwhile, my Air mobile key works perfectly fine, and I bet it would be even better if it were NFC and I could just hold it up. I hope that's true.

 

[Alex]

Meanwhile, my Air mobile key works perfectly fine, and I bet it would be even better if it were NFC and I could just hold it up. I hope that's true.

I’m sure you know this, but your Air key is NFC and you can hold it below the B pillar camera and press the door handle to unlock the door.

In order for you to just hold it in the air, it would have to be RFID, which works at greater distances.

NFC is a subset of RFID and works at 13.56 MHz. RFID works at various frequencies, including this one.

 

[borski]

I’m sure you know this, but your Air key is NFC and you can hold it below the B pillar camera and press the door handle to unlock the door.

In order for you to just hold it in the air, it would have to be RFID, which works at greater distances.

NFC is a subset of RFID and works at 13.56 MHz. RFID works at various frequencies, including this one.

Haha yeah, I’m aware. I meant hold it up to the B-pillar, where “it” is my phone.

I don’t mind tapping my phone if it is guaranteed to work every time. I know other people may disagree. My mobile key works like 95% of the time, but 100% via NFC would be great.

 

[joec]

This would be Gravity only, for now. No hardware in the current Air to support the “good” version of Apple Car Key. They could maybe do the OG version like BMW did years back. But that isn’t as slick as what the new version allows with UWB.

Here’s hoping it comes to Air next year, or whenever they do a more major refresh with NACS, etc.

And I’m assuming mid-size will have this. To cut costs, Lucid may even choose to not offer a fob at all with mid-size. Or sell it separately, like Tesla does.

Heck, I’d be fine with that. As long as their implementation works.

 

[Ron_Burgundy]

This would be Gravity only, for now. No hardware in the current Air to support the “good” version of Apple Car Key. They could maybe do the OG version like BMW did years back. But that isn’t as slick as what the new version allows with UWB.

Here’s hoping it comes to Air next year, or whenever they do a more major refresh with NACS, etc.

And I’m assuming mid-size will have this. To cut costs, Lucid may even choose to not offer a fob at all with mid-size. Or sell it separately, like Tesla does.

Heck, I’d be fine with that. As long as their implementation works.

I was going to say if Lucid gets PaaK and/or Apple Key right, they can just dump the fob. I expect there’s some form of Apple key for Android they can use. IDK.

 

[joec]

I was going to say if Lucid gets PaaK and/or Apple Key right, they can just dump the fob. I expect there’s some form of Apple key for Android they can use. IDK.

Yes. Android has a similar feature.

 

[knewman]

I have faith that the UWB protocol will offer a better experience. It's a purpose-built protocol for exactly this scenario, vs. Bluetooth which has been shoehorned every which way since the late 90s. I can't fathom why Lucid thought relying solely on BLE would be a good idea. I'm sure it was simply much cheaper for them to implement.