It was reported back in January that Apple had expanded its fleet of self-driving cars in California, registering an additional two dozen vehicles with the State's Department of Motor Vehicles. The Verge noted that it was a significant expansion for Apple.

Over the last few weeks, the U.S. Patent Office published several major Apple patent applications regarding future autonomous vehicles (01, 02 and 03) including an exciting one this week about a windowless autonomous vehicle that will require occupants to wear an advanced mixed reality headset (like this one) to view the outside world and to be wildly entertained until they reach their destination.

Though before the exciting stuff arrives, there's going to be a long period of just getting the basics down right. On Thursday another Titan Project patent application surfaced covering their specialty cameras that are part of the vehicle's vision system.

Apple notes in their patent filing that imaging devices, such as cameras, focus light from a scene onto an image sensor. Some vehicles use one or more cameras in a vehicle vision system to assist, for example, with lane changes, parking, and rearward view while performing a reversing maneuver. These vehicle vision systems can provide additional information to a vehicle operator, allowing the operator to make safe driving decisions.

In an autonomous vehicle, the accuracy and reliability of a vehicle vision system is even more important for safety because the autonomous vehicle may not have a mechanism for a human operator to override the autonomous vehicle maneuvers.

This week's fatal crash killing an Apple engineer makes that point crystal clear. In fact news broke today that Tesla confirmed on Friday that its semiautonomous Autopilot feature had been turned on before the fiery crash of the Model X sport-utility vehicle.

Apple further noted that the imaging devices (e.g., cameras) may experience operating conditions with various light conditions that affect the vehicle vision system, and ultimately maneuvering the autonomous vehicle.

For example, nighttime driving may have low light levels and glare to deal with, from street lights or other vehicles. While daytime driving may generally have higher light levels than nighttime driving, changes from overcast skies or a vehicle entering a tunnel could be challenging.

Glare, for example, from the sun or off of the roadway, can also affect the vehicle vision system. Changes in lighting conditions can occur suddenly and impact the scene captured by the imaging devices. Therefore, an autonomous vehicle vision system should be able to perform in many kinds of lighting conditions.

Apple's invention covers systems and methods that can be used to regulate light received at an image sensor, and ultimately as part of maneuvering an autonomous vehicle.

Because outdoor lighting conditions can change frequently and abruptly it is important, in particular, for autonomous vehicle vision systems to be able to quickly adjust the amount of light received at the image sensor. This provides improved safety and reliability to the system, which will result in fewer errors made in response to, for example, unusual lighting conditions.

For example, some embodiments described in the patent filing include one or more mechanism for blocking light received at the image sensor. These mechanisms can be quickly adjusted in response to light received at the image sensor, for example, to reduce glare from direct sunlight or from light reflected off of the roadway. Ultimately, the devices, systems, and methods described herein will make autonomous driving, and vehicle transportation generally, safer.

These challenges are unique to autonomous driving in that vehicle maneuvers may be taken by the autonomous vehicle based on sensed lighting conditions.

The safety of the vehicle occupants and others on the roadway may be compromised if, for example, the autonomous vehicle does not recognize an object in its path because of glare.

In contrast, glare produced in an image of a backup camera system can be overcome by the vehicle operator's own vision. And while lighting conditions for photography may affect the aesthetic quality of a captured image, it does not affect the operator's safety.

In Apple's patent FIG. 7 below, autonomous vehicle #700 can include a front portion #702, rear portion #704, driver side #706, passenger side #708, and roof #710. The vehicle can include any number of cameras 100A-H. In some embodiments, the cameras can be protected by an additional housing, for example, a transparent covering.

Apple's patent FIG. 3 above illustrates a schematic of an imaging system. In some embodiments, each camera can include an image sensor #130, one or more stray light sensors #132, and/or electronic control unit (ECU) #134.

Image sensors can receive light reaching a rear portion of optical chamber. Light blocking elements can be used to regulate the light reaching the image sensor. This can affect the quality of the image captured by a camera.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below illustrates a camera that can be an imaging device for a vision system of an autonomous vehicle. The camera can include one or more light blocking elements, for example, but not limited to, one or more internal baffles #110A-C, external baffle #112, and/or filter element #114.

The light blocking elements can attenuate light reaching image sensor #130, for example, by providing a physical obstruction in the pathway of the light, as shown, for example, in FIG. 2. One benefit of attenuating light is the reduction of glare, which can interfere with the proper operation of an autonomous vehicle.

Apple's patent FIG. 2 illustrates the camera as detailed in FIG. 1 above with light rays #200A-D that are examples of incident light rays approaching the camera. For example, light ray #200A illustrates a light ray that is blocked from entering optical chamber #104 by external baffle #112.

Apple's patent application was filed back in Q3 2017. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.

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