BMW Moves Ahead on Multi-Purpose Key Fob

It's not just a key fob, it’s a credit card, a public transportation pass and a repository for personal settings in your BMW (like radio stations).

BMW wants to develop this all-purpose gadget to build BMW brand loyalty among a high-end clientele. The key fob will carry your preferred settings from car to car (as long as it’s made by the German manufacturer) by connecting the multifunction key to BMW's ConnectDrive.

While it may not come with the ability to access your credit card or bank account right away, that's one of the functions BMW sees as having a lot of appeal to people who want to consolidate their lives into one “oh-dear-God-please-don't-let-me-lose-this” gizmo.

BMW Working on Concept Credit Card Key Fob (Autoblog)

Comments

For the last 15 years I have dreamed of a world where our fingerprint would hold all of our personal information; bank account info, medical records, and maybe it could even start our car too?!?

You can already pay for groceries at Jewel using your fingerprint. If BMW wants to be innovative, you'd think they could at least keep up with Jewel.

its absolotley amazing what the bmw key fob's do already. when i took my 328xi into the dealership all they did was put it into a reader and it knew how many miles were in the car, all of my trips in the last 30 + days, driving habbits, and who knows what else. it was very cool. so i'm not suprised that something like this is in the work.

Just wait till you blow the engine under warranty and the key fob rats you out for abuse.
Well Mr. Jacob it seems you tracked the car and exceeded .9 g's on the corners which displaced the oil in the pan for an excessive period of time blowing the engine which is all your fault. That'll be $18k please.
Just kidding...it is pretty cool. All I got on my Z3 Coupe keys was an LED to illuminate the key hole.

well dan i do agree with you there. but i don't plan on that happening any time soon. i will tell you when i took my car in today for a thumping noise it was making it saved me lots of time just handing them the key. all in all it took 5 minutes to drop of my car and get a loaner car. compared to the 20 or so it took when droping my Mercedes off, and having to have them look for all the information. for me the time saved is well worth the big brother fears that many people have.