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Swap your keyless key for keyless key-less key. You'll need: a Tesla S and Apple Watch

Oh and an app...

An experiment to control a Tesla Model S using an Apple Watch has been documented by UK/Ukrainian global technology company and developer Eleks.

With the Eleks app you can mimic the functions of the Tesla keyless key. This effectively allows you to used your Cupertino Watch as a keyless key-less, er, key, with which you may lock and unlock the car, switch on the lights and sound the horn.

It also shows the vehicle's state of charge, if it is charging, as well as its temperature – and where the car is parked.

The detailed description of the process of developing for the new Apple device using WatchKit, the beta watch SDK, makes interesting reading. It explains that the watch isn’t smart: it’s a window to an app running on an iPhone.

The write-up is quite damning of the Apple tool, listing bugs and unsupported features. The emulator can’t emulate all the touch features you might want, nor does it support Bluetooth or let you use the accelerometer and gyroscope.

In fact, reading closely, everything seems to be emulated. There is no indication that Eleks had an Apple Watch, or a Tesla.

The job of the exercise is to promote Eleks as a development house.

The Tesla API, however, comes out of it well, and seems good and flexible. You can even control how open the roof is from your watch.

Tesla is unusual in supporting third-party development, as most car manufacturers are so entrenched in their walled gardens they have taken root.

Only one thing on the site shatters the bonhomie, the line which says “TESLA's logo and brand name were removed from this article under request of Tesla Motors Inc". ®

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