One of the newest features of iOS 14 turns your iPhone (or Apple Watch) into a car key. This CarKey feature is coming to iOS 14 and even iOS 13 users, allowing you to lock, unlock, and start compatible cars. But just because your device runs on iOS 14 or watchOS 7 doesn't mean it can support it.
CarKey makes use of NFC technology to communicate with the car. During the initial process, the iPhone or Apple Watch needs to be placed on top of the NFC reader in the car. It'll be accessible via the Wallet app. Once set up, CarKey should work without having to unlock your device or open any app. But that means your device needs Background Tag Reading tech, which is only available on the iPhone XR and later. And so this feature will only work with the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, and iPhone SE (2nd-gen).
And according to Apple's site, for the Apple Watch, it'll only be available on last year's Apple Watch Series 5. As 9to5Mac points out, this move might be controversial since the hardware on the Series 5 model is almost identical to the Apple Watch Series 4. But it is what it is. We're hoping Apple might change its mind eventually.
The first car to support CarKey is the 2021 BMW 5 series. It isn't known yet when Apple plans to release the feature.