Dying to see what Apple’s idea of a car looks like? Here’s a bumper.
OK, so a patent, like the one for an extendable bumper awarded to Apple today, doesn’t exactly give us a detailed picture. But we at least see one more piece of evidence Apple remains a committed player in the future of cars – whether we drive them or not.
Apple stays quiet about it, but the company is clearly developing a self-driving car. And this week the world was given a glimpse inside this project, showing that it’s much larger than many had previously thought.
The FBI arrested a former employee on Apple’s autonomous car design team for allegedly downloading proprietary information and attempting take it to a rival car company in China. The resulting documentation reveals the number of employees on the project.
For the last few years, Apple has been investigating making autonomous cars, even though this is well outside its core competency of computers and their accessories.
The move leaves many observers scratching their heads, but a pair of analysts put together reasons why self-driving automobiles should be Apple’s next product category.
Uber’s self driving car program in Arizona has suffered a fatal setback after one of its autonomous vehicles hit and killed a female pedestrian.
The woman was crossing the street in Tempe around 10pm last night but wasn’t using a cross walk when the accident occurred.
The self-driving sensors that power Apple’s autonomous car have gotten a significant update since the last time we saw them.
Apple’s self-driving car was recently spotted by the CEO of a self-driving car start-up called Voyage. Co-founder MacCallister Higgins got up close with one of Apple’s Lexus RX450h’s that’s outfitted with a monstrous new sensor array. The short video posted to Twitter shows Apple’s project has made some serious strides in the last few months.
Check it out:
Foxconn will open an R&D center dedicated to autonomous vehicles in Michigan, according to company founder Terry Gou.
“Automotive development in the U.S. is … more advanced than China,” said Gou. He also said that he is interested in artificial intelligence and, specifically, deep learning technology. He declined to share the amount of investment Foxconn will be making in Wisconsin, although it’s likely to be in the multibillion dollar region.
Apple may be working on a car after all. A partnership between Apple and China’s biggest battery manufacturer is all about developing an electric car battery, according to a new report.
Apple was long rumored to be working on an autonomous vehicle under the code name Project Titan. But recent signals from Cupertino made it look like the tech company was downshifting its automotive ambitions, focusing on software rather than building an actual electric car.
Just weeks after getting its permit to drive self-driving cars on public roads, Apple is already asking the California DMV to change reporting protocol requirements.
Apple sent the DMV a letter today arguing for changes to the rules for “disengagement reporting,” which if successfully implemented, would give the public less information about Apple’s self-driving vehicles.
Apple finally received permission from the California DMW to test self-driving cars on public roads this week, but spotting an Apple Car in the wild won’t be easy for fans.
Instead of making its own automobile for the streets, Apple will simply be testing its autonomous vehicle software using other company’s cars. Apple has permission to drive only three cars, so seeing them on the road might be tough.
Here’s what to look for.
Apple’s self-driving car project just shifted to a new level this week thanks to California’s DMV which just gave Apple an official permit to test autonomous vehicles on public roads.
The next time you buy Ford, instead of buying a car to keep you might just get access to an entire fleet of autonomous cars.
Ford CEO Mark Fields revealed today during a meeting with employees in Palo Alto that not only is the company building an autonomous car, it plans to launch an entire fleet of autonomous vehicle by 2021 to create its own ride-hailing service by 2021.
