Apple cars enter the patent announcement passively, and devices such as smartphones and watches can interact with vehicles.

CTOnews.com August 12, Apple "enhanced car passive access" patent announced on August 12, the invention provides a method and device that allows mobile devices (keychain cards, mobile phones, watches, etc.) to interact with the vehicle, so that the location of the mobile device can be determined by the vehicle, thus enabling some functions of the vehicle.

In particular, the device may include one or more RF antennas and magnetic antennas for determining the position of the mobile device relative to the vehicle. Such a hybrid approach can provide a variety of advantages. The existing magnetic coils on the mobile device can be reused for distance measurements supplemented by RF measurements. Any device antenna can provide measurements to a machine learning model that determines the area where the mobile device resides based on the training measurements in the area.