Apple envisions way to adjust your car via an iPhone

Your future iPhone may be able to store key settings for your car.

(Credit: CNET)

Those of you who rent or drive different cars might appreciate a new patent filing from the folks at Apple.

Published Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a patent application called “Automatic configuration of self-configurable environments” describes a way to adjust key controls in different cars via your iPhone.

Some cars can automatically “remember” how you adjust the seat, move the mirrors, and raise or lower the steering wheel. In these cases, a press of a button restores those controls to your desired position. But when you plop into the driver’s seat of a different car, you have to again fuss with the seat, mirrors, and other controls to set them properly.

In Apple’s proposed invention, you could store the preferring settings for your car on your iPhone and then carry them over to a different automobile, such as a rented model or a new purchase.

(Credit: Apple/USPTO)

As described in the patent:

A user could allow their phone to learn configuration preferences from the user’s pe… [Read more]