According to a report from AppleInsider Beijing on March 23rd, in the latest Apple patent application issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, there are many documents related to self-driving cars, including a number of technologies to identify the movement of passengers and pedestrians in the car. .
Apple filed the patent application for 'autonomous vehicle based on gesture control' on September 19 last year. It described a set of systems for self-driving cars that can accept passengers' instructions if they need to make choices. , Self-driving cars can travel between different locations under the guidance of humans in the vehicle. This requires a way for humans to tell the vehicle what to do.
According to the patent description, the car's screen will show some options that passengers may want, such as choosing where to stop when they arrive at the destination, change the speed, or change the direction of the travel. The user can propose a variety of ways to fit the current The list of operations, including the use of verbal prompts, then select options through techniques such as speech or eyeball recognition.
Gesture control is also an important part of the system. Apple said that the car will have a so-called 'interactive zone' in which users can perform gesture control. When the hand enters the space, a prompt will pop up on the screen.
The patent described by Apple can also identify body movements and allow autonomous vehicles to drive in the direction of pedestrians. When a current traffic management system fails, the car will be able to follow the instructions of police officers and traffic police.
As a latecomer in the field of automatic driving, whether Apple can catch up with opponents such as Waymo has attracted widespread attention. According to data provided by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Apple is now allowed to test 45 self-driving cars on public roads in California. .
In April last year, the company received the first license to test three autonomous cars in California, and this figure jumped to 27 in January this year.
The "Financial Times" said that this figure shows that Apple has expanded its fleet of self-driving cars in recent months by expanding its fleet.
In California, Apple's test vehicle ranked second, ranking first in the General Motors' cruise automation company, which owns 110 test vehicles. But Apple owns test vehicles there than Uber or even Google’s self-driving cars. Department Waymo should be more.
Uber has a license to test 29 cars in California, but according to the data from the AA, the company has suspended all tests after last Sunday's crash. Tesla has a license to test 39 cars there.
Apple's self-driving car test may be limited to California, and Tesla and Uber have also tested in other states. Since Apple was allowed to openly test self-driving cars, the company has already had several white SUVs loaded with laser radar equipment. On the road.
Apple has not announced any specific product plans related to its autopilot testing, but the company's CEO Tim Cook has publicly expressed interest in developing an autopilot system.