Apple Patent For Self-Driving Cars Auto-Updates Road Maps Already Traveled On

New details regarding Apple's efforts in autonomous car technology were revealed in a patent published this week, spotted by Autoblog. The patent, called "Autonomous Navigation System," was filed by Apple in 2015, about a year after the company reportedly started working on self-driving technology. The paperwork filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office details a navigation system with sensors installed in the vehicle that provides "updates to a virtual characterization" of a route drivers have traveled on. The patent also mentions a " database of characterizations," where information on traveled roads can be stored in. "Some embodiments provide an autonomous navigation system which enables autonomous navigation of a vehicle along one or more portions of a driving route based on monitoring, at the vehicle, various features of the route as the vehicle is manually navigated along the route to develop a characterization of the route."