This BMW sedan caged itself a thief and it's a big deal for connected cars

Picture this. James Bond walks up to Q and tells him that he needs a car that will not just keep him protected from goons and spies, but one that can keep a goon from getting out. Something like a well thought of cage on 4 wheels. Q ponders for a bit and then concludes that Bond needs to get out a bit and take a breath of fresh air, because cars today can already do this.

It almost seems like a scene from a James Bond flick where a goon tries to break into a car but then gets himself locked in with car now holding the thief.

The Seattle Police Department (SPD) after receiving a call about a stolen BMW sedan smartly contacted the automaker. The company simply locked down the now stolen car, with the thief inside, but did not immobilise the vehicle. This is where the driver realising that he was locked in, tried to escape by firing up the engine, but it was simply too late.

The future of the connected car is indeed all about give and take. You give away your location and other data to your automaker, who uses the same information to help you out in an emergency (like the scenario mentioned above), trying to find something, or just plain bored. What they could take away is your location, and may be with the future of the connected cars where they will speak to one another, share the data as well.

There is another reason why connected car keeps showing up in the news, and unlike the case above, it may not necessarily be a happy ending thanks to loopholes in security systems.

But like every other new technology, the positives often outweigh the negatives and the new and budding self-driving technologies showcased by manufacturers like Tesla is surely one of them.

Connected cars are the future. Literally every major automotive manufacturer is talking about them. Just a few weeks ago Volvo announced that it is working on making its cars talk to one another . Here the advantage apart from the usual security measures, was also to alert driver about the road conditions that lay ahead. This could include something dangerous like slippery surfaces or even stalled traffic due to an accident. In low-visibility conditions like dense fog, this could be a life saver.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) along with Ford and the UK government is working on Autodrive . Its connected platform that basically communicates with the available infrastructure like traffic lights to tell the vehicle and inform its driver about the optimum speed at which it should travel in order to reduce the number of red lights it comes across on a journey.

Nutonomy is a shining example of how connected and driverless cars are the future of commercial and public transportation. And it looks like a very pretty picture especially when you factor in how confidently Tesla showed off its fully self-driving capabilities in a recent video.

Connected cars are also constantly connected, meaning they are more updated with the latest maps, software and more. Think of BMW’s Open Mobility Cloud platform that basically connects your connected car to the cloud, and to your smart home, smartphone, smartwatch and more. In short, you could request your BMW i3 to arrive at the end of your driveway and even relay to your smartwatch as a notification that you need to fuel up on your way to work.

However the true potential of connected cars lies in how the platform from one automaker can integrate with another, something that has not been explored just yet. Only when these cars are truly connected to a network will a BMW be able to relay vital data to a Ford behind it. So don’t be surprised if you suddenly see a long queue of Volvos line up on the side of a highway knowing that there’s a problem ahead while your Ford chugs along… unknowingly (just an example). Ford sold the Volvo Car Corporation in 2010 to Geely Automobile of China for $1.8 billion, so for now, Ford and Volvo will not share data.

And with that mega connected network come issues related to data sharing and privacy.

While we haven’t stepped into the “truly connected” car phase yet, owners do love their privacy. A year ago, Porsche refused to tie up with Google’s Android Auto. The reason? As MotorTrend put it , Google HQ wanted a complete OBD2 data dump whenever Android Auto was activated. Porsche was concerned and went with Apple’s CarPlay instead. Indeed, not too many car owners are aware about how such smartphone integration platforms share data even today.

Of course, something bigger than privacy is security. Everyone hates bugs, but customers will not tolerate vulnerabilities and loopholes. The recent Jeep hack was something that would give any connected car owner nightmares. The hack was clear example of how a zero-day exploit can give a hacker complete access to a vehicle. Wired writer, Andy Greenberg, was not worried when the air-conditioning turned on and off, got a bit annoyed when the radio station kept changing, but started to panic when they deactivated his brakes. Lucky for him, the hackers are working towards plugging up these loopholes and that he was in an empty parking lot when the brakes were deactivated.

So yes. After all the positives come the negatives, and since there will always be new vulnerabilities to plug, it is not exactly going to be easy for automakers to state that their car is big on security like BlackBerry does with its re-branded Alcatel smartphones. It’s all a part of a learning curve until the platforms behind connected cars are perfected. Right now it just stands as a double-edged sword that adds to the asking price, one that could save your life or put your security at risk.