You can now unlock your Hyundai with your smartwatch

Hyundai Blue Link
Unlock your car with a tap of the wrist

The list of futuristic tricks you can pull of with your Google-powered smartwatch just got a little bit longer: Hyundai has pushed out a new version of its Blue Link app with Android Wear support to let you unlock any of the firm's cars with a tap on your wrist or a voice command.

We knew the update was on the way and as far as we know this is the first wearable app with this kind of functionality to actually make it to consumers. That's notable, even if the pool of Android Wear-using Hyundai drives is probably pretty small.

Based on the time we spent testing out Blue Link in January, it's a system that works as advertised. You can use it to connect your phone to either Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, as well as find where you parked your car and get the engine started once you're inside.

Smart car future

We're expecting big things from smart car tech this year, and a wealth of new smartphone and wearable apps that take advantage of upgraded motors. Google and Apple will both be pushing their respective dashboard platforms and you can expect developers to follow their lead.

Volkswagen is one of the companies that's promised to bring Android Auto and Apple CarPlay to its cars during the course of 2015, so once you've decided which smartphone camp you're in, you can buy an automobile to match.

In the meantime, if you're a Blue Link user and an Android Wear smartwatch owner, get hold of the latest app update and enjoy the benefits of being able to unlock your car with a single tap – just make sure your watch doesn't run out of battery.

David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.