Let the Apple Car rumors roll on. Apple has been granted a patent (number US 11833891 B1) for “Laminating Glazing” on a vehicle windshield.
About the patent
Glazings, such as windshields for vehicles or window panels for buildings, have optical properties, such as reflectance and optical transmittance, that provide aesthetic and functional characteristics to such glazings. For example, a film may be applied to an external surface of a glass panel, which hinder different spectrums of light from passing therethrough. Apple wants the glazing on its own vehicle to be laminated.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “A laminated glazing includes a first glass layer, a second glass layer, and a third layer between the first glass layer and the second glass layer. The third layer has an optical property that differs in a first region as compared to a second region, the first region being within five inches of one side of the laminated glazing and the second region extending from the first region toward another side of the laminated glazing.”
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.
