Many people have speculated upon the very real possibility that Apple - of all companies - is/was seriously pursuing the development of self-driving cars, and given their propensity to merge hardware and software, could have their own electric autonomous car in the works as well.
Those rumblings have recently went silent, with reports emerging that the California tech giant is focusing on other areas. However, Apple CEO Tim Cook recent sat down with Bloomberg Technology and, in a very rare occurrence, elaborated on an internal project still large shrouded in mystery, even calling it “the mother of all AI projects”.
“I think there is a major disruption looming there,” he said. The entire exchange, at least pertaining to the car industry being so ripe for a disruption, lasted only briefly, but the contents are possibly very impactful. Cook described the state of the automotive landscape as having three main “vectors of change” that are prime for rapid innovation; that being autonomous driving, ride sharing, and electric cars.
More importantly, he revealed that autonomous driving technology fascinated Apple in particular, and that they are actively working in solving that problem through their advanced artificial intelligence and machines learning teams.
With Apple now seeming to be going all in on autonomous driving systems, it’s unclear what exactly they plan to do with this new software stack as they would much prefer to not have to license any kind of software but rather package in as a fundamental advantage to sell their own hardware, which is why Google’s own efforts in this space is rather fitting for their software-first approach.
Clearly, Apple is keen on perfecting the software first before lobbing it into an actual product, but we’ll have to wait to find out exactly how far they are in the race toward fully autonomous cars. But even if they are one of the first to figure it out, there’s still the question of the car it will operate in as well as how that car is powered.
There’s no question that this hypothetical vehicle will be zero emissions and fully electric, but that presents a whole other set of technical, manufacturing, and operational hurdles. Luckily, Apple probably has more expertise in tackling those problems more than probably any other company today.
Recently, it was revealed that Apple had received a permit from the state of California to officially test self-driving cars on public roads. Bystanders have previously spotted Lexus SUVs equipped with sensor arrays and the like around former Apple headquarters in Cupertino.
