Apple has been granted a patent (number 10,919,482) for an “airbag-based occupant safety system,” ostensibly for an “Apple Car.”
Dennis Sellers for Apple World Today:
In the patent filing, the tech giant notes that existing occupant safety systems for traditional, one- two- or three-row vehicles, such as restraints including seatbelts and airbags, can reduce the risk of injury during a collision…
However, in the absence of adequate reaction surfaces or tethers, airbags may deflect too much to adequately protect an occupant during a collision. Apple also notes that, in non-traditional vehicle designs, for example, where rows of occupants face each other within the passenger compartment or where the vehicle is designed without roof rails, there are limited options for reaction surfaces and tethers.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s summary for an ‘Apple Car’ airbag system:
One aspect of the disclosed embodiments is an occupant safety system. The occupant safety system includes a sensor that provides an output signal indicative of an imminent collision and a pair of inflatable restraints. The inflatable restraints deploy from opposing interior surfaces of a passenger compartment of a vehicle based on the output signal. The inflatable restraints each include a central chamber and a pair of outer chambers. The outer chambers extend along opposing side surfaces of the central chamber upon deployment, and the central chamber has a first pressure and the outer chambers have a second pressure. The central chambers and the outer chambers of the pair of inflatable restraints meet along an interface region within the passenger compartment.
Another aspect of the disclosed embodiments is an occupant safety system. The occupant safety system includes a sensor that provides an output signal indicative of an imminent collision, a first inflatable restraint that deploys from a first interior surface of a passenger vehicle in response to the output signal, and a second inflatable restraint that deploys from a second interior surface of the passenger vehicle in response to the output signal. An interface structure is defined on one or both of the first inflatable restraint and the second inflatable restraint to restrain motion of the first inflatable restraint relative to the second inflatable restraint when the first inflatable restraint and the second inflatable restraint are deployed.
Another aspect of the disclosed embodiments is an occupant safety system. The occupant safety system includes a sensor that provides an output signal indicative of an imminent collision and an inflator that selectively inflates an airbag or vents to an exterior of a vehicle based on the output signal. The inflator is disposed within a cavity of a door of a vehicle.
I will not consider a battery electric vehicle until I can be sure that the batteries have been certified ethically sourced from ecologically remediated mine sources with net neutral environmental harm, and from adult union labor that is inclusive of all genders, races and abilities.
Will you buy an electric car that exploits women, children, POC and the planet????
Come on, Apple! You are better than this! This is not who you are! If you want me to buy your car, I want to see you follow through on real campaigns to eliminate and remediate all exploitation, human and ecological! Take that huge stash of lucre you have to atone for your sins!
No child labor for electrons! Gaia will not be raped for rich people’s battery electric vehicles!
Interesting. I wonder how you currently have managed to certify ethical sourcing of all of the fossil fuel products you are consuming.
Not a justification for not starting anew.
Let’s get it right this time, especially as we get rid of the fossil fuel economy!
Come on, Apple! Stop raping Gaia!
There is no logic in locking existing exploitation in place based on the excuse that alternatives aren’t utterly flawless. The threshold needs to be that the issues you describe are IMPROVED OVERALL from the status quo. Grandstanding and ideology aren’t going to help here, it needs a real and honest understanding of what is going on in the world.
Sure thing!
You go give your money to Apple, (as if they need it) or any other corporation for an electric car powered by the destruction of children of color and the rape of Gaia. Look into those exploited children’s eyes as you get in your BEV to go buy your Starbucks and your beef burger!
How can you sleep well at night, knowing that your money goes for such crimes?
You know you can be better than that. Maybe a tour of a a lithium strip mine is in order.
Ethics First: I’m thinking that there is an underlying satirical tone to what you wrote? Therefore, I also think that you forgot to put the “//s” there when you finished?
Lots of interesting stuff. The thing that jumped out at me was they describe a two occupant row configuration with the first row facing rearward and the second row facing forward in the traditional method. This tells me they are going for full level 5 autonomous right out of the gate. That’s crazy but completely Apple. It would make no sense for them to follow how 30 other car makers design their vehicles. The only reason for them getting into this is to do something no one else has ever attempted before.
Yes it does make sense to shoot straight for level 5 autonomous. The lower levels are just a bad idea. The “killer app” for driverless cars is the occupant who is too drunk or sleepy to drive, or sending the car to pick up the kids from school.
Why would you go to the airport if you could sleep for 8 hours in your car-bed and wake up 500 miles away?
Lots of interesting stuff. The thing that jumped out at me was they describe a two occupant row configuration with the first row facing rearward and the second row facing forward in the traditional method. This tells me they are going for full level 5 autonomous right out of the gate. That’s crazy but completely Apple. It would make no sense for them to follow how 30 other car makers design their vehicles. The only reason for them getting into this is to do something no one else has ever attempted before.