Just two years ago, word on the street was that Apple’s auto project (Project Titan) was cancelled. The company formally announced hundreds of layoffs and a restructuring.
But news has surfaced that the project may be continuing as a Skunkworks project. Could that be true?
Apple's recent patent filings certainly back this up -- they are continuing to develop automotive innovations in many areas. Just this past month, they've had patent applications published on autonomous driving control ("Decision Making for Autonomous Vehicle Control" -- US20200401892), LIDAR sensing ("Barrier Detection" -- US10860034), and vehicle-to-vehicle communications ("Apparatus of a user equipment to select resources in a vehicle to vehicle communication system" -- US10880897).
Sure, you say. But perhaps they aren't really doing any new development, just tidying up some remaining IP filings from the project?
Fine. Maybe. But try this. In April of 2020, sixteen months after the project was supposedly cancelled, they filed a patent for "Moveable panel assemblies" (US10850662).
They tried to get all clever with that generic title -- Moveable panel assemblies -- but it's not hard to see what they're up to.
We call this a sunroof:
Note: image from published US Patent #10,850,662 at uspto.gov.