Smartphone to soon double up as car keys

Hyundai said developing the system was part of the carmaker’s aim of producing technology for the mainstream consumer. Photo:AP 

 

Keep misplacing your car keys? Just wave your smartphone to unlock the door!

Engineers at South Korean automobile major Hyundai have invented a new system that will allow your smartphone to double as your car keys, and the technology will be made available to buyers within two years.

Rather than using Bluetooth, the system by Hyundai uses wireless Near Field Communication (NFC), allowing you to lock and unlock the car by waving your phone over a small tag on the car window.

Inside the car, you place the phone on a pad in the centre console that wirelessly charges it while the content is synced and streamed to the car’s infotainment system and touchscreen.

The system can also store in-car preferences, including radio stations, seating positions and even mirror adjustment with multiple profiles able to be saved for different drivers.

The system was demonstrated on a concept version of Hyundai’s popular i30 in Germany.

Hyundai said developing the system was part of the carmaker’s aim of producing technology for the mainstream consumer, website carsguide.com.au reported.

“The Connectivity Concept showcases Hyundai’s philosophy of making tomorrow’s technology accessible to a wide range of customers,” Hyundai Motor Europe chief operating officer Allan Rushforth said.

“With this technology, Hyundai is able to harness the all-in-one functionality of existing smartphone technology and integrating it into everyday driving in a seamless fashion,” Mr Rushforth said.

 

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Intel's new smartphone app lets you know if your car is being tampered with

Image via CrunchBase Carjacking and automobile theft may not be the kind of crimes most users have to deal with on a daily basis, but there will always be users who feel that more automobile security can only be a good thing, especially if one takes into account how vital a role the car plays in serving a person's transportation needs today. And leave it to Intel to deliver the added security any anxious car owner craves with its new work-in-progress app which is reportedly capable of sending alerts directly to a user's smartphone upon any detection of attempted tampering made by unauthorized personnel.


As Intel's new app is still currently a work-in-progress, not much detail about the app is available. However, what we do know is that Intel plans to pull off such a solution by "connecting the electronics inside a car to the Internet, so that mobile apps can provide a car owner with updates on his vehicle when the two are apart". To achieve this, Intel has reportedly installed a custom circuit board that has been outfitted with its Atom processors into a car, which then "interfaces with the car's electronics, and connects the car to a cloud server over a mobile network".


That just leaves Intel with the issue on how to get the information gathered by the car's electronics into a user's mobile phone. According to a report published by Technology Review, the chip giant has built special apps for phones powered by both the Android and iOS operating systems in order to give them access to the car's log data, as well as send commands remotely over to their vehicle. The report goes on to claim that the apps can be used to carry out a variety of both simple and complex tasks, such as remotely opening the car doors and starting the engine, or even sending security alerts and streaming live feeds should the car's proximity and motion sensors detect any irregularity.


Sounds great? Well, it would appear that Intel's novel solution comes with one major drawback; this continuous flow of data to and from the car and a user's smartphone is carried out almost exclusively through WiFi connectivity, and not 3G. This has raised some concerns that a technologically-savvy carjacker might be able to circumvent such a security feature by either relocating the car quickly enough to a WiFi dead zone, or simply coming equipped with tools to jam the WiFi signals, thus preventing any data from being sent to a user's smartphone.


Then again, we have pointed out earlier that Intel's new solution is still currently under development, and the finalized version (should there ever be one) will probably boast the addition of various built-in security mechanisms that may be specially designed to prevent the disruption of such wireless signals from all but the most determined carjacker. Well, we shall see.

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WHEN GOD THROWS A BRICK.....

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, 'What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?' The young boy was apologetic. 'Please, mister...please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do,' He pleaded. 'I threw the brick because no one else would stop...' With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. 'It's my brother,' he said, 'he rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up.' Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, 'Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me.' Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay 'Thank you and may God bless you,' the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home. It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar.. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: 'Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!' God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It's our choice to listen or not.

Thought for the Day:

If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.
If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it.
He sends you flowers every spring.
He sends you a sunrise every morning Face it, friend - He is crazy about you!

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A Marvellous Answer

A mechanic was removing the cylinder heads from the motor of a car when he
spotted the famous heart surgeon in his shop,

Who was standing off to the side, waiting for the service manager to come to
take a look at his car.

The mechanic shouted across the garage, 'Hello Doctor!! Please come over
here for a minute.'

The famous surgeon, a bit surprised, walked over to the mechanic.

The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on a rag and asked
argumentatively,

'So doctor, look at this. I also open hearts, take valves out, grind 'em,
put in new parts, and when I finish this will work as a new one.

So how come you get the big money, when you and me is doing basically the
same work? '

The doctor leaned over and whispered to the mechanic.....

.
.
.
.

He said: 'Try to do it when the engine is running'.

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