I hope I am wrong about this, but I was left with the impression that the Comfort Access feature only made locking/unlocking keyless after reading the info. on the BMW website. Here is what they say -
"With the optional Comfort Access function (delayed availability), the key identifies the vehicles owner to the vehicle, allowing the driver to open the car door without ever pressing a single button. To secure the vehicle, the driver merely touches a marked spot on the door handle upon exiting." It says nothing about the driver not having to insert the key fob into the dash slot - I would think they would mention this as this would be an important aspect of the Comfort Access function. Maybe BMW considers the entry/exit part of the function to be far more important than the start/stop side of the equation, and therefore didn't think it was important enough to mention that the car can be started without using the fob. It just seems to me like a glaring omission on their part if you can indeed start the car without the use of the key fob.
To try to get to the bottom of this, I just called 2 dealerships, and they both told me the same thing - on the current 7 series, the Comfort Access allows the driver to start the car without the use of the key fob. So I then said - "So it will be the same way then on the E90, correct?" and both dealerships said - "Well, we can't say for sure because this feature is not available yet in the E90's" To which I said - "Well, if that's the way it currently works in the 7 series, it makes sense it would work that way in the 3 series" and they both said "Well, it should, but we can't say for sure that the Comfort Access feature in the E90 will be identical to the feature in the 7 series."
I certainly hope I am wrong and hope that this feature when it makes it debut in the E90 in the fall will allow for keyless starting of the car. Now that I know that this is the way it works in the current 7 series, it makes sense that it would work the same way in the E90's. The salesmen are probably trained to never state anything as fact if it is not in writing from the head office (although salesmen still seem to be a source of much misinformation), so this is probably why they were not willing to say for sure.
Prolix