Apple’s next big app for the iPhone: Starting your car

When the Apple iPhone first appeared, its presence flummoxed automakers which typically need a couple of years minimum to adapt to new technology. Today, most automakers offer their own apps for some of their more technologically advanced models, up to Volkswagen designing a special-edition Beetle as an iPhone accessory. But now Apple has its own ideas about what the iPhone could do beyond play music — namely, replacing your key fob for locking and starting.

In a U.S. patent application made public last week titled "Accessing a Vehicle Using Public Devices," Apple engineers described a method for using two iPhones and a vehicle's Bluetooth wireless connection to not only lock and unlock the doors, but start the engine and track the vehicle's movements via GPS. Apple envisions the iPhone becoming far smarter than the typical plastic key; the patent describes ways a user could authorize a second phone over email to act as a key, but limit the car's top speed, or even the hours at which it would turn on.