A recently published patent indicates that the Apple Car’s airbags could help block inbound shrapnel and other items from hitting the vehicle’s occupants in the event of an accident.
The vast majority of vehicle safety measures surround protecting the driver and passenger during the moment of an impact. From reinforcing the vehicle’s body to airbags and seat belts, vehicles are designed to keep the humans inside from being majorly hurt.
It’s that that aside from shrapnel that could be hurled around inside a car, objects such as bricks from a wall or shrapnel from another vehicle could pass through the windshield and potentially hit someone in the vehicle. Another major factor is that shards of glass from the windshield itself could become airborne on impact, and potentially cut or seriously injure the vehicle’s occupants.
In a patent granted to Apple on Tuesday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office entitled “Windshield area intrusion control,” Apple looks into this problem and proposes an airbag wall could be put in place that covers the windshield area completely.
One example within the patent posits two airbags inflating to create a wall within the vehicle. By hiding airbag walls in the roof and the instrument panel, airbags of various designs can be produced to fill up the space and block any items heading for the passengers. The airbag walls can take the blow from the airborne hazard, deflecting it or depleting its energy.
The patent also suggests that extra structures could be incorporated into the design, such as a film across the entire windshield that could hold back items stopped by the airbags. The authors also suggested how portions of the solid instrument panel can swing on a hinged element to flip up and into place, covering a large section of the windshield area.
Another idea suggests using a pyrotechnic or mechanical actuator to move chunks of the instrument panel into place. While the former is a very quick and responsive method, the latter may allow the system to be reusable.
The patent was originally filed on May 18, 2018, and lists its inventors as Alexander M. Zoellner, Arturo Llamazares Domper, Christopher D. Jones, David E. Kingman, Derek C. Scott, Jesse T. Buehler, Rickard Fredriksson, and Stephen B. Lynch.
While Apple tends to file multiple patent applications on a weekly basis, and the existence of each patent is by no means a guarantee as to whether the idea will be implemented, it does help indicate where the company’s product development could be going.
Rumors of the development of the Apple Car have frequently been bolstered by patents, which surface at a very regular rate. While potentially years away from release, Apple is reportedly in talks with various car producers to make the vehicle into a reality.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider and the United States Patent and Trademark Office