Apple looks into a climate control system for an ‘Apple Car’ — Apple World Today

In the patent data, Apple notes that vehicle climate control systems often rely upon one or more air-conditioning units and one or more heater units, to control a climate in various portions of a vehicle cabin. Such control can include directing air, at least partially conditioned or heated by one or more elements, into various regions of the vehicle cabin (“cabin regions”) via various air vents located throughout the cabin, heating various surfaces in the cabin through heating elements, etc. 

In some cases, such control is at least partially implemented by a climate control system included in the vehicle. The climate control system can respond to user commands, provided via one or more interfaces in the vehicle, including dials, knobs, touch-screen interfaces, etc. 

In some cases, the climate control system can generate a particular configuration of some climate control components to effect a particular change in climate conditions in one or more cabin regions and generate output commands to the climate control components to achieve the generated configuration.

Apple says that, in some cases, climate conditions in a vehicle cabin may be relatively uncomfortable for the occupant(s), particularly when such occupants initially enter the car when, for example, it’s been turned-off and left outdoors on a hot day. In such a case, reducing the interior temperature to a more comfortable level may require an extended period of operation of the ACU at a high operating level. In another example, where an overheated individual enters the vehicle cabin, the user may desire that the vehicle cabin climate conditions be rapidly changed. 

However, Apple says that some car climate control systems may be limited in providing such functionality. For example, airflow provided into the cabin from various cabin air vents, and conditioning or heating of such airflow and various cabin surfaces, may not provide sufficient granularity in climate control of one or more particular cabin regions occupied by one or more occupants to provide comfortable climate conditions to the occupants. Or climate control systems may be limited in a capacity to anticipate optimal configurations (e.g., operating settings) of various climate control components for various situations, and for various particular users.