Let the Apple Car rumors roll on. Apple has been granted a patent (numberUS 11879610 B2) for “Multi-Mode Lights” for a vehicle.
About the patent
The patent notes that, to accommodate different driving conditions, vehicle headlights are sometimes provided with low-beam and high-beam settings. To improve visibility in other areas surrounding an Apple Car such as on its outboard sides, Apple wants an Apple Car to also be provided with enhanced cornering light capabilities.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “A system may have lights. A light may include a first light source and a first reflector configured to provide lighting for a high-beam mode and for a low-beam mode. The light may include a second light source and a second reflector configured to provide lighting for a cornering light mode.
“The lighting provided by the first light source and the lighting provided by the second light source may pass through the same headlight lens aperture. A light blocking structure may provide a cutoff pattern that define the illumination pattern of the low-beam lighting and the cornering lighting. One or more additional light sources may be provided to boost the intensity of a hot spot for high-beam lighting.”
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.
