The 16th Plugfest, held by the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC), has been taking place this week (January 12-16) at CCC’s facility in Palo Alto, Silicon Valley. The event is being hosted by Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies (RV Tech).
CCC defines how vehicles interact with devices and the world through standardized, secure and convenient connectivity solutions.
The event brings together automotive and technology companies to conduct real-world interoperability testing of the CCC Digital Key – the global standard for secure, smart device-based vehicle access.
Participating companies include: Accenture, Apple, Aumovio, BMW Group, Dekra Testing and Certification, Ellisys, General Motors, Google, Hyundai Motor Company, Marquardt, Mercedes-Benz, Motorola Mobility, Rivian Automotive and Volkswagen Group of America.
This Plugfest continues CCC’s effort to strengthen CCC Digital Key Version 4 interoperability and certification readiness. Throughout the week, members have been evaluating V4 implementations across both Version 3 and Version 4 devices – generating insights that will help identify potential interoperability device list (IDL) end user devices, which serve as trusted reference devices for validating conformance and interoperability.
“As demand for secure and seamless vehicle access accelerates across the vehicle and mobile industries, events like Plugfest 16 are essential to ensuring CCC Digital Key continues to meet the needs of our global membership,” said Alysia Johnson, president of CCC. “We’re also grateful to Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies for hosting this week’s event here in Silicon Valley, where hands-on collaboration helps advance the next phase of interoperability.”
Plugfest 16 testing activities have included CCC Digital Key V4 interoperability testing – cross-version evaluations of V4 and V3 implementations to assess real-world compatibility and identify IDL candidate devices; bluetooth LE sniffing validation – structured full-day sessions to analyze communication behavior, resolve remaining test case issues and support future certification needs; updated near-field communication (NFC) scenarios – testing refined NFC use cases based on findings from recent Plugfests, alongside passive entry and remote keyless entry test cases; ultra-wideband (UWB) tool evaluations – vendor demonstrations showing how UWB equipment can support member development and future certification processes; and authorized laboratory participation, with CCC-authorized end-to-end laboratories, including Dekra, one of the first North American labs to earn authorized test lab (ATL) status, executing published test cases with IDL devices and CCC-approved tools.
“Plugfest 16 allows members to validate CCC Digital Key V4 in real-world conditions,” said Ganesh Venkatesan, technical director for CCC. “Bluetooth LE sniffing, updated NFC evaluations, UWB tool testing and lab-led checks all help refine implementations and move the ecosystem closer to certification readiness.”
CCC’s Plugfests provide member companies with a structured environment to validate interoperability, identify implementation issues early and contribute to the refinement of technical specifications, test documents and tools.
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