The NFC Forum has added certification for digital car keys that let users unlock and start their vehicle with an NFC-enabled smartphone — even when the smartphone battery is dead — to its newly released CR13 product certification program.

Aiming to extend NFC Forum certification by “introducing specific market ecosystem device classes”, CR13 includes support for Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) Digital Key releases 2 and 3, enabling manufacturers — including those which are not members of the NFC Forum — to test and verify that their NFC car access systems conform to CCC specifications for the storing, authentication and sharing of digital keys on mobile devices.

CR13 will also add certification for NFC wireless charging “in the first quarter of 2022” to enable “enrolment of interoperable products using the NFC wireless charging feature to the broad NFC ecosystem”, the Forum says.

“With the release of CR13, the NFC Forum is opening device certification to non-members,” NFC Forum executive director Mike McCamon says.

“This is a significant step to addressing the global need for NFC interoperability across multiple ecosystems including automotive.

“Smartphones and NFC-enabled devices that conform to CR13 can support a wide variety of NFC implementations while also improving the user experience, and can be used in many other applications that support a contactless lifestyle, including payments, smart homes, identity, mobility and Internet of Things.”

The NFC Forum launched its CR12 product certification program to improve user experience across a range of NFC use cases in December 2020.

The Car Connectivity Consortium unveiled its NFC digital key specification in May 2020. 

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