Car experts at Vanarama have created an impressive interactive 3D model of what they think an Apple Car will look like based on an official Apple patent. The concept shows the exterior design of the car as well as the interior. The model explains design decisions with useful notes detailing relevant Apple patents. This may be apple's best idea for a future car project.
Appearance and chassis
Vanarama's model is fully 3D and lets you rotate the car 360º to see the front, side, and back. The design seems to have taken some inspiration from the Cybertruck, despite its rounded corners. The first thing you might notice is the column-free design of the glass lid, including the Windows, skylights, and windshield. The patent, US10384519B1, shows That Apple has invented a way to build the car without having to extend the chassis over the door to separate the different glass panels.
The exterior of the car also uses the adaptive door of patent US10384519B1. Vanarama has taken the liberty of adding a few extra Apple highlights here, like a Mac Pro-style front grid, a soft white chassis, and a retractable door handle.
Interior & Software
Inside, Vanarama models a large continuous touch display that extends across the dashboard. Patent US20200214148A1 will allow Apple to integrate a seamless ultra-wide display. Vanarama took this continuous dashboard design and modeled some Apple software for a car. Using several patents, it envisions a fully customizable dashboard of controls and information, as well as a Siri version of an intelligent driving assistant.
If you look closely, you can see some smooth temperature controls, a launcher for opening apps like CarPlay, Siri's waveform, now Play controls and more. It looks like they've even integrated a display in the center of the steering wheel, and you can see that the steering wheel is not a circle.
Of course, since the concept only uses Apple patents and not the actual design as rumored, this is pure speculation. Apple's early patents rarely reveal what products will look like when they finally hit the market. But this is arguably the first truly realistic Apple car concept. This is quite reasonable, don't think too big about it. It is designed to be trendy and suitable for its target audience.
Two things are impossible with an Apple car. First, the Apple logo is ubiquitous in the concept. The location of the identity should be very small. The car's design will be so unique that it will be instantly recognizable to anyone, without even needing to see the logo. There's only one in the front and one in the back. Second, the steering wheel won't be a perfect circle. Apple loves harmony and symmetry.
