Let the Apple Car rumors roll on. Apple has filed for a patent (number US 20240022842 A1) for “Systems With Hidden Openings” in vehicles for heating, cooling, and sound systems.
About the patent filing
The patent filing involves systems such as vehicles and other systems have electronic components and components that handle tasks such as heating and cooling. In a vehicle interior, these components may be overlapped by layers of material such as cloth, polymer, or leather.
In the patent filing, Apple notes that the “vehicle, building, or electronic device system may have a layer of material with invisible openings.: The layer of material may form a covering for part of a vehicle seat such as a seat cushion, backrest, or headrest or may form other suitable covering structures.
The invisible openings may be laser-drilled openings. The layer of material may include an outer layer of fabric overlapping an inner layer such as an inner foam layer. The laser-drilled openings may have an outer openings in the fabric layer and inner openings in the foam layer.
Each of the inner openings may be overlapped by multiple outer openings. The exposed surface of the fabric layer may have strands of material of different appearances and/or may otherwise be configured to help visually hide the laser-drilled openings. Laser-drilled openings may also have small sizes to help make the laser-drilled openings invisible.
Laser-drilled openings may overlap components such as audio components, heating and cooling components and/or light-emitting components. During operation of the system, sound, air, and/or light may pass through the openings.
Summary of the patent filing
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “A system such as a vehicle, building, vessel, aircraft, or electronic device system may have a layer of material with invisible laser-drilled openings. The layer of material may include an outer layer of fabric overlapping an inner layer such as an inner foam layer. Laser-drilled openings may include outer openings in the fabric layer and inner openings in the foam layer.
“Each of the inner openings may be overlapped by multiple outer openings. The exposed surface of the fabric layer may have strands of material of different appearances and/or may otherwise be configured to help visually hide the laser-drilled openings. Laser-drilled openings may also have small sizes to help make the laser-drilled openings invisible. Laser-drilled openings may overlap components such as audio components, heating and cooling components, and/or light-emitting components.”
When might we see an Apple Car?
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said that Apple’s work on the Apple Car has “lost all visibility at the current time. He has noted that if Apple does not adopt some kind of acquisition strategy to make inroads in the automotive market, it is unlikely that the Apple Car will be able to go into mass production “within the next few years.”
On. Nov. 18, 2021, Bloomberg reported that Apple was accelerating development on its “Apple Car.” The article said that the electric vehicle will be self-driving and could roll out in 2025. However, this doesn’t look like a feasible scenario.
