Apple canned its long-in-the-works Apple Car project in February 2024, but the company still occasionally files for a patent regarding automotive technology. The latest is for “User Interfaces for Hybrid Gauges.”
About the patent filing
In the patent filing Apple notes that a vehicle instrument is an instrument that indicates and/or measures some parameter(s) in a vehicle, such as a car, plane, and/or boat. Instruments are often part of a vehicle dashboard and/or instrument cluster.
A gauge is an instrument (with or without a scale), that provides visual feedback of the amount, level, or contents of a parameter of a vehicle.
Apple says that some techniques for managing user interfaces for hybrid gauges using electronic devices, however, 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.
Apple apparently thinks it can do better. I’m not sure how the patent filing would be applied unless Apple revives its Apple Car product or an Apple Plane or Apple Boat.
Summary of the patent filing
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “A user interface for a hybrid gauge includes a path and an indicator moves along the path to indicate amounts of electric power and combustion power. A user interface for a power gauge changes appearance based on a battery and/or fuel level. A relative visual emphasis of power gauges change based on detected conditions.”
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