Apple Car Design Concept by Magic Torch, Behance.net Community
Suspicions that Apple is making its unmanned electric car have been around for a long time . The developments are kept in the strictest confidence, but then insiders will leak information , then the management of the "apple" casually let it out. It is believed that the project was called Apple Car, iCar and finally Titan at various stages. We have been working on it since 2014. The American press even named the address of the developers' headquarters: Sunnyvale, California, 195 N. Wolfe Road. In 2015, Bloomberg predicted , based on inside information , that Apple Car would enter the market in 2020. This did not happen: on the contrary, at the end of 2019, Apple notified the stateabout the dismissal of 190 employees from the unmanned vehicles division (thereby indirectly confirming the existence of the project).
However, the company has not moved away from the automotive theme. Last summer, she bought a self-driving car startup Drive.ai. Apple patented new car seats last February , and introduced Car Keys in June , which lets you start and stop the engine using your iPhone or Apple Watch.
The matter was not limited to digital keys. Patently Apple reporters examined Apple's patent application (see it here). They discovered a lot of know-how regarding passenger safety. For example, sensors that track respiration and heart rate, and not only people, but also cats and dogs. Also described are pressure sensors in the seats of cars, the level of carbon dioxide, the temperature of the passengers' bodies (using laser and infrared thermometers), etc. All these parameters will not only be collected, but compared and analyzed by the on-board computer. He will monitor whether the health indicators of passengers correspond to the norm.
Apple Car Design Concept by Magic Torch, Behance.net Community
The machine also takes care of the prevention of accidents. For example, if a person is about to get out of the car onto the road and there is a danger that another car will crash into the open door, the door simply will not open until the danger has passed.
A special place in the patent application is given to flood protection. According to ABC broadcaster, 94 Americans are killed each year in cars during floods. There are no similar statistics for Russia, however, in the summer of 2017 alone, rescuers got 92 cars from the bottom of Lake Baikal .
Apple's sensor systems are able to determine the water level around the car, the speed of water flow. They will understand whether the car is sinking or has already gone under water and to what depth. The life support system at the same time minimizes the leakage of water into the passenger compartment and at the same time makes it easier to leave it: it unlocks the doors, seat belts (there is an option when they are automatically cut), gives a distress signal, and tells passengers how to leave the car. If passengers remain in the cabin, the computer will open the oxygen supply. Otherwise, the car will give out the means of rescue, perhaps even put them on the victims and begin to inject water into the passenger compartment in a dose to reduce the difference in pressure inside the car and outside - this will help to leave the sinking car. Even after going under water, the car will send distress signals to rescuers.
«» Magic Torch, Behance.net
№20200255002was registered in March 2018. Which of the know-how mentioned in it will be applied, in what combinations - it is difficult to say yet. It is not even known whether Apple will eventually release its "apple car" or will only sell its developments to the side (perhaps even Tim Cook does not know this yet). But it is safe to assume that Apple technology will help set the standards for self-driving car safety for the entire market. Moreover, the ground is ready: in many countries, private companies and states are developing projects to improve road safety using digital solutions, including on the eve of the era of drones. For example, in Russia, the authorities are planning to invest from 3 to 5 billion rubles on the Avtodata platform". One of its main tasks is to make driving safer. So whether Apple releases its car or not, its technologies will definitely be in demand on the market.