[electric-beagle]

Yes, you can lock/unlock the car via phone apps (Jaguar app, WattCat, etc.) or watches running apps as you point out.

This thread is about the activity key. The activity key's purpose is to allow locking/unlocking while leaving an authorized fob inside the car while the driver goes off and does some other activity.

Explain to me what the difference is? You can lock.a fob away and lock the car with your watch surely. The new activity key is just a watch app now anyway at more than twice the price of a far better and more functional watch.

 

[Ayepace]

You need an authorized fob to start the car.
You start the car with the fob on you.
You reach a destination and want to go do an activity (e.g. gym exercising or swimming) but don't want to take the fob with you to prevent theft from locker or get it soaking wet (fobs are not waterproof).
You leave the car, with the fob hidden inside (i.e. inside center console), lock the car with the activity key (it is waterproof).
The fob is detected in the car and deactivated. It will remain deactivated until the car is unlocked with the activity key that locked the car. In fact, this applies to all detected fobs.

This isn't just remote locking/unlocking. Remote locking will not work with a fob detected inside the car.

 

[electric-beagle]

So you can't just put the fob in a sweet tin (highly effective as a Faraday cage to deactivate the fob), in the centre console and lock and unlock the car with your watch (which is also waterproof)?

I think anyone would be nuts to buy an activity key instead of a watch even if the sweet tin adds an extra £1 of cost.

 

[Ayepace]

Someone can still break into the car, find the sweet tin, open it looking for the sweets, find the fob, and drive off with your sweet ride instead.
They can't do the last part of that when the activity key is used to lock the car.

Yes, it is an expensive accessory. I do not expect it to be a high demand item. I can see dealers adding it to stock order vehicles (this is offered on other JLR models) to pad profits.

 

[electric-beagle]

You would however have to be an utter moron to steal an EV which can be easily tracked and which would be useless without updates which will identify itself, not saying its not possible to be stolen but it is really quite unlikely. Especially given that anyone breaking in would have no idea the key was inside.

Having seen how cheap the current activity band looks (like a very cheap smartwatch) I think I will stick with my Wear OS solution.

 

[squishball]

One added benefit of the 2019-20 activity key is it is not powered, and does not contain a battery. It works perfectly for my water activities.

 

[kkemp]

The other use case for the activity key is for use in a remote location without cellular service. A smartwatch app (there is one for the Apple Watch, too) relays its unlock command to JLR's servers via the internet, which in turn relays it back to the car to unlock. If your car or watch has no internet connection you will be unable to lock or unlock your car. The activity key, being an NFC device and not having an internet connection will work in this situation.

 

[electric-beagle]

Decent phones and smartwatches also have embedded NFC although I am not sure the apps use that but it is technically possible

The new activity key is a sort of smartwatch too.

 

[Ayepace]

I think the MY21+ activity key uses Bluetooth for car communication. It has the symbol on its face.
This would make sense too since one does not have to hold it up to a specific location on the hatch.