Patent ID: 7904569

Claim:
A method comprising: coupling an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) bus, an Automotive Multimedia Interface Consortium (AMI-C) bus, and an external network via a gateway device, wherein the OEM bus interconnects OEM vehicle systems that perform vehicle functions, and the AMI-C bus interconnects AMI-C devices; authenticating devices connected to the AMI-C bus at the gateway device using an application processor, wherein authenticating devices connected to the AMI-C bus at the gateway device using an application processor comprises: consulting a security database to determine whether a device attempting to access the AMI-C bus via a port node is authorized to communicate with the AMI-C bus; and in response to determining that the device is unauthorized, instructing the port node to prevent traffic from the unauthorized device from being passed from the device to the AMI-C bus; routing communications from at least one source to the application processor using a real time processor in the gateway device, the at least one source being selected from the group consisting of the OEM vehicle systems, the AMI-C devices, and the external network; hosting vehicle applications associated with the OEM vehicle systems and the AMI-C devices on the application processor; and receiving an external communication at the gateway device and responsively altering a function of a vehicle system of the OEM vehicle systems.