Project Titan, Apple’s secret electric car program that was greenlit by Tim Cook two years ago, is facing a serious crisis.
The iPhone maker has reportedly laid off dozens of employees that were working on the auto project, even though the company has already started testing a couple of autonomous vehicles the team built.
Apple might team up with “expert technologists in batteries” from South Korea to create hollow lithium-ion power cells that will fuel the upcoming Apple Car, according to a new report.
While the name of the South Korean company hasn’t been revealed due to a nondisclosure agreement with Apple, it’s supposedly comprised of just 20 people. The South Korean team reportedly joined Apple’s secretive Project Titan automotive effort earlier this year, and the battery innovations could help the Apple Car stand out from the competition.
The old adage is that new cars depreciate the minute you buy them. However, the rumored Apple car might be the first vehicle to actually make you money after you drive it off the lot.
If Apple’s car is autonomous, it’ll earn its keep delivering people or goods when you’re not using it. So says Paul Godsmark, a robocar consultant and one of the leading experts on the upcoming autonomous vehicle revolution.
In this fascinating interview, Godsmark talks about the enormous changes that are coming up fast with self-driving vehicles, including Project Titan, the rumored Apple Car.
Buckle up! Everything is about to change dramatically — from the way we travel to the way we work.
Apple has been busy working on its electric car project at secret facilities in Silicon Valley, but the tech that will make it totally autonomous might be hiding in plain sight throughout San Francisco.
During a drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, an eagle-eyed observer spotted what could be Apple’s latest self-driving car or mapping van, a vehicle that is armed with more sensors than ever.
Google’s self-driving car project is moving to Detroit.
The CEO of Alphabet’s driverless car project, John Krafcik, revealed today that the company plans to lay down roots in the Greater Detroit Area by establishing a self-driving technology development center.
Google’s autonomous cars have taken to the road with the rest of us normals in our comparatively Flintstones-esque, human-directed rides. And the very small brush-ups are starting to come in.
In fact, the California DMV has created a form just for reporting accidents involving at least one self-driving vehicle, and it publishes these reports on its website. And while the doomsayers and doubters have wrung their hands about cars plowing into trucks filled with baby penguins, the truth is that the dozen or so accidents on the list are so hilariously small that they hardly seem worth the paperwork at all.
They should definitely file the reports; don’t get us wrong. But we imagine an eye-roll or two while it happens.
If you live in Mountain View, CA, get ready for a new sight this summer. That’s because, several years after starting its self-driving car program, a handful of Google’s autonomous vehicles will finally be leaving the test track and hitting public roads in the area.
With human safety drivers on board, of course.
Chevrolet has a concept car that looks like something Bat Man would drive. Except he wouldn’t drive it the scene of the crime. The car would drive him.
The FNR concept is a self-driving car that may never see the light of day. But for that day to come, developers must dream, and Chevy has put forth a beautifully imagined vehicle that could nudge the future in a certain direction.
The nudging began this week at the Shangai Motor Show, where General Motors showed off its idea of an autonomous electric vehicle. The FNR likely drew more oohs and awes than the new Malibu that also debuted at the show.
The mysterious Apple minivans roaming the roads in California, Florida and elsewhere are generally assumed to be self-driving cars, but they are not. They are almost undoubtedly collecting data for maps.
They are “almost certainly a mapping vehicle,” said Paul Godsmark, chief technology officer with the Canadian Automated Vehicles Centre of Excellence, who examined photos of the mystery vehicles at Cult of Mac’s request.
It’s time for another weekly dose of all the great stuff from our intrepid news hounds and reporters within the digital confines of Cult of Mac Magazine.
Buster has the lowdown on eight of the hot new features in Apple’s upcoming Photos for Mac, and he also takes a good long look at the mysterious vans owned by Apple that have been spotted around the San Francisco area. If you need to protect your precious new iPhone, Stephen drops a video spotlight on five cases you’ll want to consider for your fancy Apple smartphone. Rob digs deep into a new digital comic — companion to the Midnight Star video game — and how the award-winning team brings the game world to life. Jim drops in on a hip retro gaming shop in Portland, too, coming back with some stunning pictures of this old boys (and girls!) club.
All that and more in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine – check out our top stories below, and then click on through to get your own copy for free.
File this under “unbelievable,” but according to reports from the Bay Area, multiple black vans owned by Apple have been spotted driving around San Francisco with a fancy camera array on top that may indicate the company is developing a self-driving car.
The vehicles have also been spotted in Brooklyn and could be designed to create a competitor to Google Street View. But after looking at the camera array, which is much different than Street View cars, some experts are convinced it’s a self-driving car prototype.
Get a look at the vans in the video below:
Are you eagerly awaiting the arrival of the self-driving car so it can save you from the stress and possible injury caused by people who swerve around in the streets like maniacs? Or do you hate the idea of a driverless auto because it won’t let you weave around all those slow a-holes who won’t get out of your way?
Regardless of how you feel about vehicles that don’t need your help to manage your commute, they’re coming, and change is often scary. especially if the free-wheeling roadster in question is a superfast Audi RS 7. And if you’re wondering what you look like when you’re sitting in a hunk of metal traveling at over 135 miles per hour with no control over the steering or brakes, Audi has you covered.
