A number of late-model vehicles are capable of locally storing and recalling driver profiles at the push of a button. This ensures that things like seat position, steering wheel tilt, mirror adjustments, radio presets and so on can easily be restored each time you get behind the wheel of a shared vehicle.
Soon, you may be able to take those presets with you to other vehicles.
General Motors recently received a patent for a cloud-based system that will allow drivers to do just that. Here's how it could work.
Starting out, a driver will need to create an account for the service and program all of their settings just how they like them. These settings can include the aforementioned options as well as custom infotainment applications, contacts, voicemail and even Internet history.
When entering a different vehicle, drivers would be able to log in to their account and load all of their saved settings to the new ride. GM's patent outlined several methods to authenticate users including basic text passwords, RFID chips, voice recognition and even a biometric fingerprint reader.
When the driver is no longer using the car, all of the settings will be removed.
The cloud-based system seems like a useful enough idea although I do detect a few hurdles. While some settings like radio presets and infotainment options could easily transfer between vehicles, things like seat and mirror position will differ - at least slightly - between different models in GM's fleet.
Furthermore, the system would serve as yet another data grab and potential security concern at a time when privacy is already under the microscope.
Either way, it's just a patent at this point which means there's no guarantee we'll see it implemented in the real-world.