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Apple claims that they use time-of-flight for their "Unlock with Apple Watch" feature on macOS, so it seems like something that a car maker/supplier could pull
by frankus 8y ago
Apple claims that they use time-of-flight for their "Unlock with Apple Watch" feature on macOS, so it seems like something that a car maker/supplier could pull off, especially if they're willing to throw dedicated hardware at the problem.
That said, the fob is much more battery-constrained than a watch that you charge on a daily basis.
- comboy 8y agoThis is such an obvious solution that maybe some patents are the reason it's not implemented by every car manufacturer.
- williamscales 8y agoIndeed, the last time this attack vector came up on HN, it was pointed out that one company has patented using time of flight to validate keyless entry. Here's the patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US8930045 https://patents.google.com/patent/US8930045
- comboy 8y agoNice find. Looks like Apple cites it in some of its own patents ("Enhanced automotive passive entry" from 2018-08-16) so maybe they already have rights to it and that's why unlock with Apple watch can work correctly.
- andrewstuart2 8y ago`ping`. They were granted a patent for ping. That seems ridiculous.
- williamscales 8y agoIt also describes RADAR, or even LIDAR for that matter. It doesn't seem like one should be able to patent something that is merely an application of a well known physical principal. Maybe I misunderstand what "novel" means.