Apple may have abandoned its Apple Car project, but it continues to be granted, and file for, patents related to vehicles. The latest patent filing is number US 20240300295 A1 for a car’s climate control system.
About the patent filing
The patent filing relates generally to climate control systems and in particular to a climate control system with a variety of operational modes for use in an enclosure such as a cabin of a vehicle. In the patent filing Apple notes that novel vehicle cabin configurations, such as configurations with opposed seats and an open interior, can increase a thermal conditioning priority for occupants seated in a rear of the vehicle cabin as compared to occupants seated in a front of the vehicle cabin.
Duct routing, vent design, and air extraction or exhaust methods associated with traditional vehicle cabin configurations may not provide adequate climate control efficiency or occupant comfort in novel vehicle cabin configurations. If a vehicle including a novel vehicle cabin configuration is an electric vehicle or a hybrid-electric vehicle, climate control can be more complicated to achieve than in a vehicle operating with a combustion engine since excess, waste, or by-product heat available to the climate control system from the propulsion system is limited in comparison. Apple thinks it has a solution.
Summary of the patent filing
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “A climate control system that includes a sensor configured to collect sensor signals from an interior of an enclosure and a climate control module configured to determine, based on the sensor signals, whether an air quality parameter is above or below an air quality threshold. When the air quality parameter is below the air quality threshold, the climate control system is configured to draw air from an exterior of the enclosure through a first filter and into the interior of the enclosure and draw the air from the interior of the enclosure through a second filter and return the air to the interior of the enclosure.”
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