“Apple is joining the fiercely competitive race to design self-driving cars, raising the possibility that a company that has already re-shaped culture with its iPhone may try to transform transportation, too,” Michael Liedtke reports for The Associated Press. “Ending years of speculation, Apple’s late entry into a crowded field was made official Friday with the disclosure that the California Department of Motor Vehicles had awarded a permit for the company to start testing its self-driving car technology on public roads in the state.”
“The permit covers three vehicles — all 2015 Lexus RX 450h hybrid SUVs — and six individual drivers,” Liedtke reports. “California law requires people to be in a self-driving car who can take control if something goes wrong.”
“The Cupertino, California, company pointed to a statement that it issued in December,” Liedtke reports. “‘Apple is investing heavily in machine learning and autonomous systems,’ the company said then. ‘There are many potential applications for these technologies, including the future of transportation.’ released that statement after Steve Kenner, a former Ford Motor executive who is now Apple’s director of product integrity, notified federal regulators of the company’s interest in self-driving cars in a letter.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Removing the stupid humans from the driving equation will make greatly reduce accidents and traffic jams caused by general stupidity, rubbernecking, slow reaction times, abrupt, unannounced lane changes, visual impairments, lack of awareness, slack-jawed mouth-breathing, excessive speed, drunk/drugged driving, texting while driving, ignorance of laws, road rage, maladroitness, sleep deprivation, insect removal attempts, etc., etc. etc.
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