On March 20, Huawei officially released the new M9 at the Pura Pioneer Festival and Hongmeng Intelligent Driving New Product Launch Conference, with a starting price of 469,800 yuan. According to Yu Chengdong, Huawei's executive director, chairman of the Terminal BG, and chairman of the Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU, the Hongmeng Intelligent Driving M9 car's first NearLink car key has a positioning accuracy that is at least 5 times higher than the traditional Bluetooth solution, and the unlocking accuracy is at least 6 times higher, claiming to "lead digital car keys from usable to smart use."
As the "new four modernizations" wave sweeps the automotive industry, driven by the intelligence and networking of passenger cars, car keys are accelerating towards digitalization, bringing unprecedented flexibility and convenience to users. The digital car key system is mainly composed of a digital lock core and a digital car key on the vehicle side. Currently, digital car keys on the market mostly use NFC, Bluetooth RSSI, UWB and other technologies to achieve "keyless" entry, start, lock and other core functions, and support remote control of vehicles.
Like Bluetooth and UWB, NearLink is also a wireless short-range communication technology that achieves positioning and unlocking by measuring the distance between the key and the vehicle and transmitting data. Why develop the digital car key when Bluetooth and UWB technologies are already widely used? What are the unique advantages of NearLink technology?
Technology is at least two years ahead of Bluetooth CS
In September 2024, the Bluetooth SIG released Bluetooth 6.0. The biggest highlight of this version is the addition of a new Bluetooth high-precision positioning technology: Channel Sounding (CS). Bluetooth CS combines two different distance measurement methods: phase ranging (PBR) + round-trip time (RTT), and is positioned as a safer and more accurate positioning technology than Bluetooth RSSI.
Completely subverting Bluetooth RSSI
Bluetooth is the earliest wireless short-range communication technology to enter the field of digital car keys, and it is also the most widely used technology at present. At present, Bluetooth RSSI based on signal strength has obvious shortcomings and can no longer meet the growing intelligent needs of car users. However, NearLink SLE has the advantages of high positioning accuracy, strong anti-interference ability, high security, long connection distance, and low power consumption. It can bring users the experience of UWB at the cost of Bluetooth and is perfectly adapted to the automotive field.
More cost-effective than UWB
In NearLink 2.0 released on March 28, 2024, the NearLink Ultra-Wideband (SLP) technology, which combines ultra-wideband communication and precise positioning capabilities, has attracted much attention. NearLink SLP aims to build a full-stack localization capability from chips, protocols to applications, and form a strong competition with UWB technology.
In the digital car key scenario, UWB technology has become a key technology for the third-generation digital key with its advantages such as high-precision positioning, strong anti-interference and low power consumption, and related solutions have gradually entered the mainstream market. From the current market progress, the degree of marketization of UWB is higher than that of NearLink SLP, but at the same time it has core pain points such as high structural cost and low penetration rate of mobile phone UWB.
In contrast, the upgrade of NearLink SLP technology is more convenient and has significant cost advantages. NearLink chips support Bluetooth and NearLink dual transmission modes. When the device is popularized, only the Bluetooth chip needs to be replaced, while UWB upgrades require additional UWB chips and antennas, which are more expensive and take up more internal space of the mobile phone.
At present, the digital car key market presents a pattern of coexistence of three solutions: BLE+NFC, BLE+UWB+NFC, and UWB+NFC. With the addition of NearLink technology, the future market will form a new solution integrating BLE, NFC, UWB, and NearLink, bringing new vitality to the market.
NearLink ushers in the year of ecological explosion
Since its official commercial launch in 2023, the NearLink ecosystem has ushered in a comprehensive outbreak. Relevant data shows that there are more than 1,200 member units of the NearLink Alliance, and hundreds of ecological partners have launched products equipped with NearLink technology. There are currently more than 100 related categories, covering multiple industries such as digital, home appliances, and games.
Starting from 2025, NearLink will be deeply integrated with multiple industry scenarios to achieve full-scenario intelligent interconnection, promote technological innovation and industrial upgrading, and bring users a more convenient, efficient and secure wireless connection experience. With the maturity of technology and the improvement of standards, NearLink technology is expected to achieve wider market penetration in the future, especially in the fields of smart home, consumer electronics, automotive electronics, etc., further promoting the development of related industries.
This paper is from Ulink Media, Shenzhen, China, the organizer of IOTE EXPO (IoT Expo in China)
