Apple Patent Shows iPhone Pairing as a Wireless Car Key

Apple has been granted a patent which could see your trusty iPhone become even more useful than before – by becoming your new smart car key.

Ensuring you’d never have to worry about losing your keys again, the patent titled ‘Accessing a Vehicle using an iDevice’ details a wireless setup between multiple iPhones and vehicle with one device acting as a primary key holder. Limited benefits can also be granted to secondary touchscreen devices that can be used as temporary keys.

For example, the patent mentions setting the ‘usage parameters’ of the iPhone/key so it can only be used between certain times of the day, so restrictions could be set up to allow and deny the kid’s from taking the car for a spin without dad’s permission. We think our parent readers will agree this sounds a very handy feature!

The diagrams included with the patent suggest that to achieve its agenda the car to be connected to the iPhone would need to be fitted with a Bluetooth module, a Controller and a Storage unit and the break down details how the pairing, activation and authorisation sequence would actually play out.

It’s probably too early for naming of makes or models of cars that might support Apple’s design for wireless unlocking but the patent is non-specific when it mentions vehicles. But this could, however, allude to Apple’s Project Titan – another patent, this one for an electric smart-car which has been discussed since 2014 and is rumoured to go into production in 2020.

Source: Patently Apple