The slow march of technology is an interesting thing to watch. We're seeing it now with electric vehicles. They're becoming better, cheaper, and more popular seemingly by the day. But the little stuff can sometimes go unnoticed. Apple Carplay is a good example. One day it was just kind of... there. Now we complain whenever it isn't available.

A year ago, Genesis and Samsung partnered up to make unlocking your car with your Samsung Galaxy a reality. Hyundai did something similar with Apple around the same time. Back then, only a tiny handful of cars had this feature, like BMWs. Now, Samsung appears to be expanding the list of compatible vehicles.

The Korean cell phone giant is going to expand its "Digital Car Key" function to both the GV60 and G90 SUVs from Korea's own Genesis, in addition to a massive number of BMW models. The full list includes BMW's full run of non-SUV models, from the 1 Series to the 8 Series, as well as X5, X6, and X7 SUVs, the Z4, and the BMW i4. The BMW iX is also on the list.

Frankly, it's puzzling news. BMW has just announced that its own digital key software is expanding to allow up to five users for both the i4 and iX. However, that doesn't mean Samsung's new key functionality is going to be exclusive to the models listed above. While there's no reason the two pieces of software can't coexist, we find it hard to imagine BMW wants anyone else getting in on their digital key game.

As with BMW's own software, the Samsung update will allow users to give out "keys" to anyone they want for a specified time period. Authorized users or owners of the cars will be able to do everything from unlocking doors, to opening the trunk, to starting the car and adjusting the seats and mirrors.

Users will be able to use the software via the "Samsung Pass" app, but it appears the US update for this has not rolled out yet. The most recent update to the US-spec software still shows the as-yet unexpanded list of Genesis models. For now, it appears the newest software is limited to Korea only, pending a global release.