During Apple's WWDC-22 Keynote we were given a sneak peek at CarPlay 2023 with all-new customizable Instrument Clusters. On Thursday there was news that the vehicle industry will use mini-LED displays for next-gen Instrument Clusters.  

Also on Thursday, the last patent application day of the year, a new Project Titan patent was published by the U.S. Patent Office that covers electronics packaging and specifically to packaging of control components in a vehicle electronics architecture.

In Apple's patent background they note that packaging of electronic systems in a vehicle is often executed sequentially as new features are added to the vehicle. The amount of weight added to the vehicle with a given feature is dictated by existing body structures, current wire harness configurations, and mounting space available within the vehicle.

This feature-by-feature approach can lead to a large number of control units spread throughout vehicle and mounted in a variety of locations. Adding new features can be implemented, for example, by use of pigtail or splice into existing wire harnesses or addition of new wiring harnesses or cables. In this way, new electronic systems often increase the number of control units, fasteners, brackets, wiring harnesses, cables connectors, etc. in the vehicle, which in turn increases weight and build complexity.

Consolidated Electronics Packaging

One aspect of Apple's invention relates to a new consolidated electronics unit for a vehicle that includes a housing defining a cavity and control units disposed within the cavity. The control units are configured for electronic communication with feature units disposed throughout the vehicle. The consolidated electronics unit includes a cover configured to removably couple to the housing, enclose the control units within the cavity, and form a portion of an interior surface of a vehicle cabin of the vehicle.

Another aspect of the patent covers a housing for a consolidated electronics unit of a vehicle. The housing includes side walls disposed between seat rails. The seat rails are configured to support a seat in a vehicle cabin of the vehicle.

The housing includes a bottom wall coupled to the side walls and mountable to a thermally-conditioned subsystem of the vehicle and a cover removably coupleable to the side walls.

The cover, the side walls, and the bottom wall form a cavity configured to enclose control units. The control units are configured for electronic communication with feature units disposed throughout the vehicle. The cover forms a portion of a floor of a vehicle cabin of the vehicle.

Another aspect of the disclosed embodiments is a housing for a consolidated electronics unit of a vehicle. The housing includes side walls mountable to vehicle rails of the vehicle, a bottom wall coupled to the side walls, and a cover removably coupleable to the side walls and configured to form a portion of an interior surface of a vehicle cabin of the vehicle. The cover, the side walls, and the bottom wall form a cavity configured to enclose control units in electronic communication with feature units disposed throughout the vehicle.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below is a schematic top view illustration of a portion of a vehicle; FIG. 4 is a schematic top view illustration of a consolidated electronics unit.

For more details, review Apple's patent application number US 20220410826 A1.

Apple Inventors

• Ryan Garrone: Hardware Engineering Manager, Special Projects
• Philipp Wolf: Senior Product Design Engineer (SPG). Wolf is now with Rivian (electric vehicles)
• Riepling; Jeffrey M.: Although listed on a dozen Apple patents covering Project Titan and Mixed Reality Displays, we couldn't find a LinkedIn profile.