An Apple Car’s cabin could double as a living room or mobile office

Let the Apple Car rumors roll on. Apple has applied for a patent (number US 20230347795 A1) for  “Collapsible Mechanisms in an Environment.” It involves the cabin of a smart car being used as a living room or mobile office.

About the patent filing

In the patent filing Apple notes that design innovations are possible in terms of interior features within an environment such as a vehicle cabin. For example, seating systems can include seats that can be arranged into configurations consistent with the vehicle cabin serving as a living room or a mobile office. 

However, furnishings to support functionality of the vehicle cabin as the living room or the mobile office, such as work surfaces, displays, ottomans, etc., are absent, limited in use, or bulky in terms of requiring packaging space when not in use. In the absence of adequate furnishings or sufficient space, occupants may be unable to effectively work or relax during a vehicle journey. 

Apple says that new approaches to collapsible mechanisms are desired. And tech giant may implement such approaches if/when an Apple Car arrives.

Summary of the patent filing

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “A collapsible mechanism having a base and a back. A guide moves the base and the back between a support configuration and a table configuration. One or more surfaces of the base or the back form a height-extendible work surface in the table configuration.”

When might we see an Apple Car?

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that Apple’s work on the Apple Car has “lost all visibility at the current time. He adds 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 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. 

What’s more, in a note to clients — as noted by AppleInsider — investment bank Wedbush said Apple is likely to announce a strategic electric vehicle partnership in 2022 to lay the groundwork for an “Apple Car” release in 2025.

If Kuo is correct — and I suspect he is — those predictions are way too optimistic.