Porsche and GuardKnox demonstrate the service oriented vehicle

Our vehicles are no longer just a means of transportation. Today, they are highly connected and the automotive industry is continuously seeking ways to customize vehicles throughout the vehicle life cycle.

The automotive industry is constantly working towards both present and future trends, and how we can transform the customer experience with the service-oriented vehicle. Much like the revolution of the software industry by the mobile app market, the automotive app store will also allow for on-going customization of your vehicle, thus enabling the service-oriented vehicle to be heavily geared towards the future.

Porsche teamed up with GuardKnox to secure vehicle software customization using the proprietary GuardKnox platform.

Porsche demonstrated at the StartUp Autobahn Expo Day, in July 2017, how vehicle owners can customize their car by remotely adding or changing its functionality in real time — without compromising the car's security and safety.

New Ways to Customize your Vehicle

Luxury sports car owners are very attached to their cars and want to take them wherever they go. They also want the car to be able to perform many different driving scenarios as easily as possible.

Real-time customization answers both these needs. This ability to change the car’s features by remote commands sent in real time, and yet with total security, is revolutionary.

One example of what Porsche can do with such a capability:

A vehicle owner who initially purchased a vehicle for road-based driving wants to take the vehicle to the track for a real-life racing experience. However, when the car was initially purchased, he/she did not purchase the add-on features to make the vehicle better equipped for such scenarios. The car owner simply logs into an “App Store” for Porsche features, and purchases the “sport driving support package upgrade”. This automatically configures a set of parameters in the car that improves its ability to navigate in a racing environment.

Porsche's Demonstration at the StartUp AutoBahn Expo Day

During the StartUp Autobahn event, Porsche and GuardKnox demonstrated their prototype. The prototype provides the foundational level of cybersecurity with the ability to add/change functionality in various systems throughout the vehicle based on the driver, vehicle and/or vehicle condition. It also serves as an extension of the central gateway unit; both by securing all communication, as well as enabling the addition of more functionality.

In another demonstration, GuardKnox showed how they could change functions throughout multiple systems in the vehicle in a contextual manner. Click here to see the video.

The Business Potential

The demonstrations by Porsche at the StartUp Autobahn Expo represent only a tiny subset of possible use cases. Forward looking, the potential is enormous. The GuardKnox Platform enables Porsche to integrate added-value offerings with unprecedented simplicity, thus making way for the automotive App Store, which would not be possible without the highest level of cybersecurity protection.

Use Case Examples:

• A previously-owned vehicle is sold to a new owner who prefers a different style of driving, or has to deal with different road or weather conditions.
• Performance Tuning Package — Includes preset or driver-customized adjustments for GT touring, track racing, rallycross, etc., and tunes multiple parameters, such as:
  
  • Acceleration
  • Differential
  • Breaking
  • Suspension
  • Transmission
• Driver Customized Package — A configuration customized for a driver based on their specific driving style, and the type of driving he/she would like to engage in.

The capabilities demonstrated by Porsche are not just technological, but present a potentially new business model for “Vehicle App Stores” or ”Functions On Demand”. The ability to continuously add valuable additions to vehicles throughout their life cycle creates an entirely new and vast market.

GuardKnox Platform as the Foundation for Real Time Vehicle Customization

GuardKnox offers automotive manufacturers a comprehensive cybersecurity solution that fits the automotive value chain and alleviates the difficulties of integrating a purely software-based solution. This technology has been proven to be geared specifically for the automotive ecosystem.

Our unique Lockdown Methodology, developed by the GuardKnox team, has been successfully deployed for use in Israel’s Iron Dome and Arrow III missile defense systems, as well as the Israeli F-35 fighter jet.

GuardKnox Platform is a highly secure, central electronic control unit (ECU), which provides high assurance defense for vehicle networks. The platform can be integrated in 2 forms:

• As a central gateway, protecting all communications in the vehicle. This leads to consolidation, lower complexity, easier certification and overall cost reduction.
  
• As an external communication gateway platform, securing the communication between an external communication interface or ECU and an internal vehicle network. This provides an easy-to-integrate (drop-in) cybersecurity hardware solution, specifically designed for Infotainment, Telematics and other ECUs with external communication.