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Though contactless key fobs have failed to ignite much interest among consumers as payment devices, chipmaker NXP Semiconductors and German automaker BMW Group believe the concept might get rolling by making the key itself contactless. Netherlands-based NXP and a research-and-development subsidiary of BMW have produced a prototype of a contactless key that can start a car and be used to initiate payments. The key contains one of NXP's secure contactless chips along with a small radio-frequency antenna. The SmartMX chip packs the same security as chips used for EMV credit or debit cards, according to NXP, which will show the device at next month's Cartes and Identification 2008 exhibition in Paris. "What we find is that the car driver has multiple opportunities to pay when he drives: paying for petrol, paying parking, paying for road tolls," François Patrice, NXP director of marketing for banking, tells CardLine Global sister publication Cards&Payments. "It really enhances the lifestyle of the driver." But Patrice was hard-pressed to explain how a contactless key that consumers could tap to make retail purchases, pay tolls or even use to ride the metro would fare any better than contactless key fobs some card issuers have rolled out over the past few years. Those issuers include Citibank and American Express Co. in the United States. The issuers either have eliminated the fobs or are phasing them out. Also unclear is how the contactless key might integrate with the electronics of the automobile itself to offer additional applications than would be available on contactless cards or mobile phones supporting Near Field Communication technology. NXP suggests the contactless keys of the future also could act as some type of virtual security "key," enabling consumers to access personal data and to be authorized for "in-vehicle online services in any BMW vehicle that they own or drive." The vendor did not elaborate. The payment keys, if they make it to the market, likely would be preloaded with payment applications. The car keys also could control access to the automobile or ignition mechanism. Chips embedded in keys or fobs already are in use for this purpose.
