On October 21, the US Patent and Trademark Office published an Apple patent. In which you can sense how a iPhone would be used as a controller remote from a car. The name of the patent is "Accessory control with geo-fencing", which was requested in 2012 and was approved on Tuesday, October 21.
According to the description text of the patent, it would be a function that complements the Apple Carplay service, allowing the iPhone to be a remote key, link it with the vehicle, being able to start the engine, remove the door lock, open the trunk , and more functions. In order to carry out these actions, the iPhone should have a link between iPhone-Car.
Although it is not specified that the device that appears in the patent is an iPhone, thinking about it is the most logical thing, because if it were not, it would force users to carry two devices with you, which would be a point against.
We talk about the race that is developing between the big technology companies for innovation in vehicles, both Google with Android Auto and Apple with Carplay, they want to improve the experience that a car can offer to users.
We are getting to the point that they want to link everything with applications of their operating systems, or to include these inside the cars, is it reliable to get to that point?
If we analyze the current situation, where hackers are capable of doing a thousand skills to access other people's data, control or spy on devices, we would be talking about our vehicles in this case would be vulnerable to possible attacksOne may think that the vehicle may not be connected to the internet, which makes it very difficult for someone to remotely access the information or functions that it may develop.
But if the vehicle was not connected, our iPhones and Smartphones are, and if they are linked to the vehicle they could become a gateway to introduce malware in our system. I know that it is not so easy to introduce malicious applications for normal users, but hackers always manage to reach their goal, and in the end they succeed.
We are currently facing prototypes and patents. So we don't know what the final product will be like, now we can only speculate and my speculations tell me that security would be lacking.
Another point is software failures, how many times a mobile fails in terms of software. Yes, sometimes it is an insignificant failure, but that insignificant failure in a car can be worrisome. This is what they have to be clear about, if they want to introduce the operating system to the car they must be precise like a Swiss watch, have a polished software that is error-proof and of course, as secure as possible, although it may be something in the end. there is always someone who breaks the shield.