As reported, Apple is indeed developing Apple-branded cars, rather than just developing in-car technology or autonomous driving smart technology.
Although Apple has not yet come out, Apple has applied for many patents on the interior and exterior of the car. The company’s latest patent named ‘Nighttime Sensing’ shows that Apple cars may be furnished with infrared headlights to improve visibility.
The new patent obtained by Apple describes a complex night vision system that can use visible light, near-infrared and long-wave infrared sensors to greatly improve visibility.
The patent shows 
that driving in a low-light environment may pose challenges to the existing lighting system, because the lighting level of the headlights may be restricted by various regulations.
In turn, this also limits the driver’s ability to see objects on the road ahead, thereby reducing safety. Apple’s solution is to develop an infrared headlamp that can capture objects 650 feet away.
Compared with traditional headlamps, the visibility of infrared headlamps is three times higher. Apple hopes that this technology can help self-driving cars see the road clearly in complete darkness so that obstacles, hazards, and other things on the road can be found more quickly.
In addition to this patent, there are other patents related to Apple cars. For example, in early February of this year, Apple obtained a patent called ‘Traffic Direction Gesture Recognition’ showing that Apple cars can recognize traffic police gestures through sensors.
For another example, in April last year, a new patent showed that Apple was developing a Tesla-type induction motor suitable for Apple cars.
(Via)
