Location Based Convenience
Going into my first internship with General Motors in 2012, I wasn’t too sure what to expect. If someone would have told me that I would come away with my first patent submission at the age of 19, I probably would not have believed them. Systems and Methods for Location Based Customization took about 4 years to come to fruition, becoming an official US Patent on February 2nd, 2016. It all started with an idea of mine addressing what I now know as a “customer pain point”. At the time my mother had recently bought a new car, which was the first my family had owned equipped with “passive locking” (a keyless entry feature that automatically locks the vehicle when the key fob is removed from the cabin). I remember her arriving home from the grocery store and parking inside the garage. As she came inside, she asked if I could go to the car and bring the groceries inside. Annoyingly, when I went to open the car, the car was locked. I had thought to myself “well that’s inconvenient.. the car is home safe in the garage, yet its locked unintentionally.”
This sparked the notion of why not allow the customer to personally set how the car locks when in certain situations or locations? In-car GPS technology was booming at the time, and this idea would take direct advantage of it. As I started to frame up the idea, the capabilities started to grow. For example, if the car was inside the garage it would remain unlocked, and if it was outside on the driveway it would passively lock. This was capable, as by the time the technology would be employed, GPS accuracy would be as precise as within 7in. Also for example, if you had a remote vacation cabin in the woods and no one is around, thus you prefer your car to never lock, you could have that. Or, if you know you are going somewhere new like a new downtown store, you could make sure that when you park on the street that your car automatically locks.
On the more creative side, I thought why not have this feature add to the ambiance of the customer experience? For example, in-car ambient lighting could use color and intensity to give the driver subtle visual cues informing them of the how close they are to their destination, or alert them of their proximity to an upcoming turn as the car notices that they are in a far lane and might miss it. As I pitched this Idea to my mentor at the time, who had about 40 patents to his name already, the idea only grew further and it gave me the reassurance that I had something novel on my hands. We scoped out things such when your vehicle pulls up to a drive-though window, the car window automatically rolls down. Or, when you park your car out on the street late at night and you don’t want it to make a sound, it automatically knows and thus only flashes the lights. Implementation is in the works and in retrospect, this was truly an experience that sparked my passion and appetite for invention.
