Mobile is the Key

Auto-Txt have launched a new car security system, which uses your mobile a supplementary key. The car won't start unless the owner's mobile phone is also present - identified by Bluetooth.

The system, which also includes other features like GPS tracking and remote disabling, is thought to be so secure that it's achieved the highest classification available - Thatcham Category 5, which is a new and comprehensive security assessment.

It's not cheap (£430 purchase/installation and £160 annual subscription - $747 + $277), so it's not really a mass market proposition, in my opinion.

This is especially interesting as it's pointing the way of the future, where your mobile will be as much proof of identity, as a personal communication device.

On one level, you'll use your mobile as a key to get into your house, car or office.

On another, you'll use it to access all your personal data stored online (files, photos, email and the like). Sometimes, you'll want to do this by synching with a keyboard and monitor, but the point is that it won't matter where you synch, as it'll be the phone which will determine access and layout of the display. When someone comes along 5 minutes later and synchs with with the same keyboard, it'll be their files and layout that will be shown.

The other way the phone will be used as proof of ID, will be making payments with the mobile, which is a market that's slow to gain traction, but will happen when someone finally gets the basics right.

Of course, the problem with this scenario is that if you steal someone's phone, you have stolen their identity. Apart from the security nightmares this potentially represents, imagine the huge inconvenience of losing your phone - you won't be able function at any level until you have a replacement.

The big advantage over today though is that all your information will be stored on the network, so you'll just get hold of a new phone, log in securely and you'll be back in business. Quite an improvement over today's painful (sooo, painful!) upgrade process.

Comments

[danielrluke]

At its core, a concept like Radiocar raises several fundamental questions about the future of urban mobility. Among them are : will GPS, combined with mobile computing, change personal transportation; how much further can personal transportation move away from the current ownership model that has existed since the invention of the automobile; and finally, what opportunities might this altered paradigm offer that the current one does not?

The essential, functional idea is this: Within a certain area, perhaps a few square miles to start, a given number of GPS-equipped cars would be placed. These cars would be available for short-term rental to members who have been carefully vetted much in the same way that cars are available for rental from services like Zipcar now. The GPS information from each car would be transmitted regularly to a server so that each car's location could be ascertained remotely either on a PC or a mobile device. By allowing remote location in this manner, the burden of having to return a car to a designated parking spot at the end of a trip would be relieved. Therefore, one-way trips would be possible. Within each vehicle, along with current location, a navigation display would indicate the total area within which trips could commence or terminate. Thus, cars could be driven anywhere, for any length of time, but would have to be returned to (and picked up in) this demarcated “zone” to ensure proper saturation and availability of vehicles. Historical GPS data would be used to determine the future outlines of this zone. Any such changes would be made centrally and then "pushed" out wirelessly to the entire fleet.