Patents Reveal Apple's Car-Friendly iPhone Intentions

This week the folks at Apple have had a patent application turned up that may very well have the next iPhone controlling your Bluetooth-toting vehicle. In this set of patent applications, Apple seems to have either picked up on the smartphone vehicle interation trend early or thought of it before the wave began. In one application, Apple seeks to start a vehicle remotely with the iPhone – in the other, the iPhone can locate a vehicle in a parking lot.

The car location patent reveals a bit on how Apple intended this system to work in ways we've never before seen implemented in the real world. With the remote starter situation, the technology has, indeed, been implemented in ever-so-slightly different ways – controlling the car via the internet, for example. Here with the car location patent, Apple intends to install sensors throughout whichever parking complex your vehicle is parked in.

Unlike Apple's tendency to work with the mobile part of the situation, here with the car location patent you'll find the parking complex full of wireless trackers that communicate with one another and your iPhone locally. This system will, instead of making your car howl with honks for your location purposes, send you an indicator based on the map of the complex.

Vehicle control in this Apple patent set works with not only remote start, but power windows, door locks, and more. Though controlling the remote starter on your vehicle will require a bit more range than Bluetooth currently offers, up close and personal you'll be able to work with basically anything in your vehicle from your iPhone sooner than later. If this technology comes to fruition, that is.

[via Apple Insider]