He apple car It remains a huge source of speculation, even after Apple has apparently scaled back its development ambitions. However, the futuristic atmosphere is back: the atmosphere of Cupertino patented retractable steering wheel and pedals which “hide” during the autonomous movement of the car.
It seems to revive the familiar idea of the Apple Car “without steering wheels and pedals” for a long time. Nevertheless, Debunking Rumors That Apple Car Will Be 100% Autonomous.
As with any patent, the language used in the document is complex and sometimes unnatural. This is because, in this case, Apple is registering technology that it may intend to use in different scenarios and in multiple versions of the same product.
Despite this, the following piece of text clarifies the concept of a pop-up steering wheel and pedals that we could see in the Apple Car. Californians describe what a car can include two user input devices. One is listed as “steering input device” – oh well, steering wheel, and the other is listed as “steering input device”; that is the pedal. In addition, Apple mentions two drive configurations: the first is manual and the second is standalone.
“The steering device can be mechanically attached to the vehicle body and can be rotated by the user to control the steering in the first configuration. In a second configuration, a physical separator may be provided between the address input device and the user..
The actuator input device may be a foot pedal that is mechanically connected to the vehicle body and may be depressed by a user to receive an actuator input in a first configuration. The pedal retracts into a recess in the inner surface which forms the passenger compartment in the second configuration..
The user input devices may be in a first configuration in manual driving mode and in a second configuration in autonomous driving mode. In the second configuration, the user input devices are configured such that they cannot be physically manipulated by the user.“.
Apple Car will have a retractable steering wheel and pedals
In its patent, Apple mentions several possible implementations of the retractable steering wheel and pedals of the Apple Car. For example, the document excerpt explains that the car’s dashboard – which would at least partially be a screen – could also be mobile. Thus, in a manual configuration, the steering wheel would remain in front of the dashboard, just like in a conventional car. But when switching to offline mode, the steering wheel will be behind the dashboard, and the latter will be located in front of the driver.
As for the pedals (of course, the accelerator and brakes) – Apple’s patent explains that they will remain extended during manual driving. When switching to offline mode, they “hid” in a hole, leaving its upper part flush with the floor of the Apple Car.
Clearly, Apple has huge plans for the Apple Car. If the car ever comes into the world, of course.
Apple is resuming its car project
Rumors about Project Titan, the Apple codename that Apple uses for its car, have been around for a long time. The people of Cupertino have invested heavily in the research and development of various technologies that could theoretically be applied to their car with autonomous capabilities. However, so far we never had an official word in connection with this project.
In fact, over the past two years, the Apple Car initiative has failed due to the departure of several key executives. Among them is Doug Field, who led the project and moved to Ford, where he is now Head of Product Development and Director of Electric Vehicles and Digital Systems. While it’s also true that to counteract these exits, Apple has hired people with extensive experience in the automotive industry. Such, for example, are the cases of Desi Uikashevich (Ford) and Luigi Taraborelli (Lamborghini).
Rumors suggest that we may see an Apple Car in 2025. Although it is not yet clear whether the Californians intend to include retractable pedals in their new steering wheel system from day one. One thing is clear: the car will not be fully autonomous, and the new patent implies that, at least in principle, this system could only work on highways.
Source: Hiper Textual
I’m Ben Stock, a highly experienced and passionate journalist with a career in the news industry spanning more than 10 years. I specialize in writing content for websites, including researching and interviewing sources to produce engaging articles. My current role is as an author at Gadget Onus, where I mainly cover the mobile section.
