Apple applied for a patent on Apple Car door technology a year ago, and now the company has applied again to the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office (USPTO) for two patents on car door technology.
The first of these is “doors with adaptive positioning”. In the patent, Apple states that future autonomous driving will no longer require a driver, which means that the door system no longer needs to be centered on the hinge.
The doors in the patent are handed over to an adaptive door positioning system for independent control. Instead of opening and closing in a fixed, non-adjustable manner, the doors can be adaptively positioned. For example, the door can be adaptively positioned based on sensor data or user input.
The doors can be adaptively positioned to avoid collisions with obstacles (e.g., nearby vehicles) in order to make it easier for passengers to enter the vehicle from a given direction, to facilitate dismounting in tight parking spaces, to accommodate sloped road surfaces, etc. The second patent relates to the Door Latch System, which can be deployed on a variety of vehicles, including passenger cars, to selectively open doors.
The second patent relates to the Door Latch System, which can be deployed on a variety of vehicles, including passenger cars, to selectively open doors.
In one embodiment, the door locking system includes a door, a door actuator, a latch, a firing pin, a firing pin actuator, and a controller. The doors may be moved between an open position and a closed position relative to the door openings in the body.
