Apple Car could get infrared headlights for ultimate night time safety

Apple Car could offer me infrared headlights if a new patent is any indication. The patent, newly granted to Apple, describes new headlights that could allow a self-driving car to see up to three times farther than a traditional car with a human driver behind the wheel.

Spotted by Patently Apple, the new patent would increase the standard 180ft viewing distance of existing headlights to as much as 600ft. All thanks to the use of a near-infrared sensor.

Having a limited effective range (e.g., about 60 meters = 180 feet) for detecting and or classifying objects can reduce safety and/or reduce the speed at which the vehicle can travel safely.

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A near infrared sensor with a near infrared illuminator can be configured to capture high resolution image information about objects in or near a path of the vehicle out to a significantly longer range (e.g., 200 meters = 600 feet) from the vehicle.

The law currently prevents headlights from being too powerful to protect the safety of oncoming traffic. But that only applies to visible light, a limitation that wouldn’t apply to an infrared solution.

A combination of multiple complimentary image sensing technologies may be employed to address the challenges of nighttime or low-light environment object detection and classification. For example, there may be looser or no restrictions on the illumination level of a near infrared illuminator mounted on a vehicle. A near infrared sensor with a near infrared illuminator can be configured to capture high resolution image information about objects in or near a path of the vehicle out to a significantly longer range (e.g., 200 meters) from the vehicle. This may enable earlier detection and classification of objects as the vehicle moves and improve safety and/or maximum speed. Near infrared illuminators may project near infrared light in a relatively narrow field of view (e.g., a 30-degree cone).

As ever though, it’s important to remember that Apple patents a lot of things and many of those patents disappear into the wind. Others do result in products however and anything is possible as far as Apple Car and Project Titan are concerned.

We’re still a number of years away from Apple Car shipping, if it ever does. Until then we can get the closest thing to a real Apple Car by picking up a CarPlay-enabled audio receiver for our existing cars instead!