“The car itself is not likely to appear as a product in Apple’s portfolio, but it is becoming more evident that the automotive technology is something the company will reveal at some point in the future,” Roman Luzgin writes for Seeking Alpha. “To remind, a year ago Apple CEO Tim Cook admitted working on autonomous systems for cars, which include such technology as self driving. Recent developments in this area show that this future may be closer than it can seem.”
“It seems that Apple takes self-driving tech seriously, as the company continues to increase its fleet of test vehicles. Hence, it was reported earlier in May that the tech giant now has state permission to test 55 cars on public roads of California, compared to just three cars last year,” Luzgin writes. “The number looks impressive in light of the fact that such pioneers of autonomous driving tech such as Waymo, Nvidia and Tesla have fewer vehicles in the Golden State, and the only player with more autonomous driving permissions is General Motors.”
“It is stated by TechCrunch: ‘In order to conduct driverless testing, companies must have previously tested the vehicles in controlled conditions. The vehicles must also, among many other things, meet the definition of an SAE Level 4 or 5 vehicle,'” Luzgin writes. “Therefore, Apple having permission to test 55 cars means at least two critical things: (1) The corporation has already tested self-driving vehicles. This implies Apple has all the necessary equipment (radars, lidars, cameras), vehicles, software, and facilities for in-house tests. (2) Apple achieved at least level 4 automation according to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) definition. In turn, level 4 states ‘no human interaction required,’ which is another clue that shows the level of progress of Apple’s self-driving tech.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously work is proceeding. Hopefully, we’ll see some results as soon as they’re ready!
SEE ALSO:
Google buys 20,000 SUVs, Apple gets two dozen VW vans – May 24, 2018
Volkswagen looks to Apple for electric-car design guidance – February 16, 2018
Apple said to develop car operating system in Canada – October 25, 2016
Apple scales back ‘Project Titan,’ effort no longer includes building own car – October 17, 2016
Apple’s Bob Mansfield reboots Apple Car project, lays off several dozen employees – September 10, 2016
South Korea company’s never-before-revealed battery technology expected to be Apple Car’s ‘secret weapon’ – August 9, 2016
Apple Car: Everything we know about Apple’s mysterious ‘Project Titan’ – July 29, 2016
Apple Car: An operating system licensed to other auto-makers? – July 29, 2016
Apple hires founder of QNX with Apple Car project increasing focus on self-driving software – July 28, 2016
Apple taps Bob Mansfield to oversee Apple Car project – July 25, 2016
Beleaguered Volkswagen hires expert in self-driving cars from Apple’s ‘Project Titan’ – November 10, 2015
As implied elsewhere, Apple would benefit by first proving the concept on its new Cupertino campus. This would be similar to Disneyland’s successful implementation of its Monorail in Anaheim, CA. But whereas the wider community rejected the monorail concept, China embraced it enthusiastically in the form of a real working high speed train that employs key features of the Disneyland monorail. Why China and not the US? I know, bombs and regime change over domestic transportation services.
Exactly so, as I said yesterday in reply to the rather one dimensional comment that numbers automatically means better and will achieve more, whereas in the real world perfecting what you know can be achieved is far better than throwing everything in term of money and resources at somethng that is far further away than people are willing to accept and will continue to do so because it’s not in their interest to accept reality. Apple traditionally achieved more on a fraction of the investment its major competitors especially Microsoft did. I in no way presume as a matter of course that as they invest more these days innovation will automatically exceed what it once did all those years ago.
And as Apple partnered with only AT&T at first with iPhone.
What is ‘fruition’ supposed to mean?
The fact is that anything labeled as “AI” these days is bullshit. It’s marketing people and researchers seeking vacuous notoriety plus funding attempting to impress the technologically illiterate. 💩
Autonomous driving automobiles fit this bullshit meme perfectly. Let’s instead say there will be publicly revealed and acknowledged PROGRESS in Apple’s autonomous vehicle project. 😁
This rubbish reminds me of the hype-fest that is 5G mobile technology. Not Ready For Prime Time, but that doesn’t stop the hype mills from grinding day and night feeling nonsense to the masses. 🤡🙃🤢
Come back in three years and maybe we’ll see something significant happen with these two proto-technologies. 🗓🗓🗓
Warning: Hype has no nutritional value. Do not depend upon hype as a daily dietary supplement. Eat hype with caution. Hype has not been approved by the FDA or the USDA. 😉
Repair: …grinding day and night FEEDING nonsense to the masses
Yes, Hannagh. I’ve been drinking my coffee. I think I’m slow today because I stayed up too late last night, despite my cat’s orders. I’ll do better tomorrow.