Invention is for improved warning info system on an ‘Apple Car’

Let the Apple car rumors roll on. Apple has been granted a patent (number 10,446,018) for “controlled display of warning information” in a vehicle.

In the patent filing, the tech giant notes that vehicles often include one or more elements that can augment manual navigation of the vehicle, an occupant’s ride experience within the vehicle. For example, an automobile can include a rear-view camera device that captures images of portions of an external environment that’s near the car’s rear end and a display the images in a display in the vehicle interior. As a result, the driver can navigate the vehicle and prevent hitting obstacles or people.

However, Apple thinks it can improve upon current systems. The tech giant’s invention involves a controlled display of prompts that proving warning info based not only on images, but also the behind-the-wheel history of the driver.

Here’s the summary of the patent: “Some embodiments provide a warning prompt control module which adjustably controls the display of warning prompts for vehicle elements in a vehicle, based on a determined profile with which the occupant is associated. An occupant detected in the vehicle interior can be associated with a profile based on a sensor data representation of the occupant correlating with a sensor data representation included in the profile, accessing a profile from a device supporting the occupant, etc. 

“A profile can include interaction history data which indicate historical interactions with warning prompts for a vehicle element. Displaying a warning prompt for a vehicle element can be adjustably controlled based on the interaction history data, included in a profile, which is associated with the vehicle element.”

Of course, Apple files for — and is granted — lots of patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Many are for inventions that never see the light of day. However, you never can tell which ones will materialize in a real product.