Apple’s Aktivitäten rund um das autonome Fahren waren lange ein wohlgehütetes Geheimnis. Langsam lüftet sich der Schleier und das erste Patent wurde veröffentlicht: Apple’s Vorstellung von einem Navigationssystem!
Apple’s invention provides a vehicle configured to autonomously navigate a driving route. The vehicle includes sensor devices which monitor characteristics of the driving route based on the vehicle being navigated along the driving route, and an autonomous navigation system which is interoperable with the sensor devices to:
„implement a succession of updates to a virtual characterization of the driving route, based on monitoring a succession of manual navigations of the vehicle along the driving route, associate a confidence indicator with the virtual characterization, based on monitoring the succession of updates to the virtual characterization, and enable autonomous navigation of the vehicle along the driving route, based at least in part upon a determination that the confidence indicator at least meets a threshold confidence indication, such that the autonomous navigation system autonomously navigates the vehicle along at least a portion of the driving route, based on controlling one or more control elements of the vehicle and based on a user-initiated command, received at the autonomous navigation system via a user interface of the vehicle, to engage in autonomous navigation of the portion of the driving route.“
