New Apple Patent Details Countdown Timer For Automated Driving System

As speculation mounts over a potential Apple car, a newly discovered patent filing offered a look at how the smartphone and computer giant’s vehicle could work. A previously unseen Apple patent discovered by Patently Apple detailed a countdown timer feature that would provide some comfort to both operators of an autonomous Apple vehicle, as well as any drivers nearby.

The patent was originally filed in September 2016 before it was granted this week. The basic idea is that an Apple autonomous driving system would show the driver the exact route the car is going to take to its destination, while removing any surprises from the equation. It would do so by providing a countdown timer to its next move, so if the car is turning left in 10 seconds, the operator and any passengers in the car would see that written out in a display.

Additionally, a rear display on the vehicle would show the same information to any drivers in other vehicles nearby. Ideally, all involved would feel a bit more comfortable knowing exactly what the automatic driving system is going to do and when.

Apple has been working on some type of autonomous driving setup, reportedly under the name “Project Titan,” for a few years now. The company has not publicly said much about the project’s existence but rumors have called it everything from a self-driving system for existing vehicles to an Apple-manufactured car.

Photos and videos of testing rigs affixed to the tops of cars have also surfaced in recent years.

Project Titan rumors heated up again in August when former Apple engineer Doug Field came back to the company after several years at Tesla. He is reportedly working on the Titan team.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted earlier this month that Apple could have a car on the market by 2025. A trusted source of Apple-related business predictions, Kuo also said the Cupertino, California-based tech giant would have augmented reality hardware for sale by 2020.

In his note, Kuo said those two business fronts would propel Apple past its recent $1 trillion market valuation and perhaps reach $2 trillion.