Volvo is set to become the world’s first auto manufacturer to offer vehicles without keys. Customers will instead be offered an application for their mobile phones, replacing the physical key with one that is digital.

The app will enable the digital key on the customer’s mobile phone to do everything a physical key currently does, such as locking or unlocking the doors or the trunk and allowing the engine to be started. Car owners will also be able to receive more than one digital key on their app, Volvo says, allowing them to access different Volvo cars in different locations, "according to their changing mobility needs."

Using the app, people will be able to book and pay for a rental car anywhere in the world and have the digital car key delivered to their phone immediately. On arrival at their destination, a customer could locate the car in the lot via GPS, unlock it and drive away—avoiding lines at the rental desk.

According to Volvo, its digital key will make sharing a car more convenient. Volvo owners will be able to send their digital key to other people via their mobile phones so that they can also use the car.

Volvo owners will be able to send their digital key to other people via their mobile phones. Image credit: Volvo. “Mobility needs are evolving and so are our customers’ expectation to access cars in an uncomplicated way,” says Henrik Green, vice president, product strategy and vehicle line management. “Our innovative digital key technology has the potential to completely change how a Volvo can be accessed and shared. Instead of sitting idle in a parking lot the entire day, cars could be used more often and efficiently by whomever the owner wishes.”

Volvo will pilot the technology in spring 2016 via its car-sharing firm Sunfleet, stationed at Gothenburg airport, in Sweden. A limited number of commercially available cars will be equipped with the new digital key technology in 2017.

Physical keys will continue to be offered for those who want them.