US 11,897,500 B2
Secure management of digital authentication information for autonomous vehicles
Collin Richard Mulliner, Brooklyn, NY (US); and Graziano Giuseppe Misuraca, New York, NY (US)
Assigned to GM Cruise Holdings LLC, San Francisco, CA (US)
Filed by GM Cruise Holdings LLC, San Francisco, CA (US)
Filed on Dec. 13, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/549,750.
Prior Publication US 2023/0182767 A1, Jun. 15, 2023
Int. Cl. H04W 12/069 (2021.01); G07C 5/00 (2006.01); G07C 5/08 (2006.01); B60W 60/00 (2020.01)
CPC B60W 60/001 (2020.02) [G07C 5/008 (2013.01); G07C 5/085 (2013.01); H04W 12/069 (2021.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for providing secrets to an autonomous vehicle, comprising:
determining a set of secrets to request at a secrets manager on the autonomous vehicle, wherein respective secrets of the set of secrets each include private digital authentication information for accessing a respective device in the autonomous vehicle, wherein each respective device has a data-configurable list of secrets to fetch;
transmitting a request from the secrets manager on the autonomous vehicle to a cloud-based central secrets authenticator for the set of secrets, wherein the cloud-based central secrets authenticator is configured to provide secrets to a fleet of vehicles including the autonomous vehicle;
identifying, at the cloud-based central secrets authenticator, the autonomous vehicle in a vehicle information database;
authenticating the autonomous vehicle at the cloud-based central secrets authenticator, based in part on the identification;
receiving, at the secrets manager on the autonomous vehicle, the set of secrets from the cloud-based central secrets authenticator;
saving, by the secrets manager, the set of secrets in an autonomous vehicle secrets memory;
providing access to respective secrets of the set of secrets to the respective devices in the autonomous vehicle, wherein the respective devices can access the respective secrets in the autonomous vehicle secrets memory; and
deleting the set of secrets from the autonomous vehicle secrets memory when the autonomous vehicle is powered down.