Apple may have canceled its Apple Car project, but the company continues to be file for patents for automotive tech. The latest is for “Cruise Control User Interfaces.”
About the patent filing
Cruise control is, of course, a feature for controlling speed, such as of a vehicle. There are several types of cruise control, including convention cruise control and adaptive cruise control. Conventional cruise control typically maintains a fixed speed. Adaptive cruise control typically automatically adjusts the speed based on traffic conditions, such as the speed of a leading vehicle.
Apple says that some techniques for managing cruise control settings using electronic devices, “are generally cumbersome and inefficient.” For example, some existing techniques use a complex and time-consuming user interface, which may include multiple key presses or keystrokes. Existing techniques require more time than necessary, wasting user time and device energy. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.
Apple’s patent filing is for a system that provides electronic devices with faster, more efficient methods and interfaces for managing cruise control settings. Such methods and interfaces optionally complement or replace other methods for managing cruise control settings.
Summary of the patent filing
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “The present disclosure generally relates to managing cruise control settings. A cruise control indicator is displayed at a location that corresponds to a cruise control speed concurrently with a textual indication of the cruise control speed. In response to receiving input, the textual indication ceases to be displayed after a non-zero duration while the cruise control indicator continues to be displayed.”
