US Patent Issued to TOYOTA MOTOR NORTH AMERICA, Toyota Jidosha on Nov. 11 for "Internal certificate authority for electronic control unit" (California, Texas Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,470,406, issued on Nov. 11, was assigned to TOYOTA MOTOR NORTH AMERICA INC. (Plano, Texas) and Toyota Jidosha K.K. (Aichi-Ken, Japan).

"Internal certificate authority for electronic control unit" was invented by Stephen Paul McFarland Jr. (Allen, Texas) and Mark R. Klausner (San Diego).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An example operation includes providing by a first electronic control unit (ECU) a fixed private key of a vehicle to a server; generating by the first ECU a limited life certificate based on the fixed private key, wherein the first ECU acts as a certificate authority; and providing the limited life certificate to a second ECU ...