According to the US Patent Office, which recently published several filings related to the Cupertino company's initiatives, Apple's autonomous technology is moving in an interesting direction. In September last year, the Californian giant filed several patents that hint at future plans related to autonomous vehicles.
You may have read it several times in the past, right Apple is working on its own autonomous vehicle, calling the project Project Titan. But a few months ago it surfaced that Apple shifted its focus from creating an actual vehicle to developing systems and mechanisms for autonomous vehicles.
The company's project is no longer so secret, as the company is testing autonomous vehicles on roads in California. Check out the technique he could Apple test with these vehicles.
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Interaction with other vehicles
A patent called Vehicle Control System basically points out how an autonomous vehicle can communicate with other vehicles on the road. Simply put, these are systems and methods that allow a vehicle to automatically switch between lanes. However, it is necessary to implement relatively complex detection and prediction methods in order to make a safe lane change.
The system relies on a set of sensors to determine the location and movement of nearby vehicles. It then uses the data to make a safe lane change while predicting the possible movements of other vehicles. Of course, before the system gives the command to change lanes, it determines how feasible the actual maneuver is based on other vehicles on the road.
On these vehicles Apple tests its autonomous system:
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Manual recognition of the direction of travel
Another patent called Traffic direction gesture recognition it is not supposed to recognize which direction to go. The patent describes a way for an autonomous vehicle to detect and track the gestures of a person giving traffic orders on the road, for example, it can track and recognize commands from a police officer manually directing traffic.
However, the patent also brings other interesting things. The system can detect pedestrians on the road trying to stop traffic in the event of a traffic accident.
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Gesture vehicle control
But it's not just the traffic instructions that Apple takes into account. Another patent called Gesture based control of autonomous vehicles describes a system that is controlled by the passengers themselves on board the autonomous vehicle. The user therefore gives instructions or controls the car in another way, for example giving instructions by voice, eyes or hands.
The car's screen would display several options, for example, the passenger could choose where to park, change the speed or choose a new route. Apple describing interaction zone, and which would be activated manually. Users could thus drive the car with a specific movement of the hand or fingers.
Interior concept Apple Car from the designer Matías Papalini:
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Route evaluation systems
In a recent patent called Cognitive Load Routing Metric for Vehicle Guidance is, in the simplest possible case, a method for finding the best route to a destination. However, the system goes far beyond finding the fastest route through Google Maps, deals with a number of other parameters.
The system can use infrastructure information to determine the best route based on driving difficulty. It can also take into account the number of lanes, the steepness of the road, the number of traffic lights or street lights. It combines individual factors with meteorological data and traffic information in real time.
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Hopefully we will see the first swallows from the workshop Apple soon. However, since it is Apple convinced of the importance of this project and miniIn terms of artificial intelligence, it ranks as the most important project he has worked on so far, and the introduction of the autonomous system can be expected soon.
Source: iDropNews
