While big-players like Google (via Waymo) and Uber have generated a lot of publicity over their autonomous vehicle technology, with Apple this has been more of the case of rumor without substance. Now it appears that Apple are shortly to reveal what it has been up to in relation to automotive-related projects. This comes with the news that Apple has been granted permission by California’s Department of Motor Vehicles to test self-driving cars on the streets of California. The permit was granted on April 14, 2017.
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The details are limited, however Apple has been given permission to test three cars manufactured by Lexus, according to the BBC. This news alone quells one rumor: that Apple was designing its own car. It now seems that Apple is working in partnership to develop technology with an established manufacturer of motor vehicles. Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of Japanese car maker Toyota. The subdivision has previous declared that it “is set to introduce its first fully autonomous controls that may finally allow its customers a snooze behind the wheel”, most probably a Lexus GS450h.
The only statement from Apple to date is one where the technology company says it is “excited about the potential of automated systems in many areas, including transportation.” In addition, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in December 2016: “we are always looking at new things, and the car space in general is an area that it’s clear that there is a lot of technologies that will either become available or will be able to revolutionize the car experience.”
The Apple autonomous car project is coded Project Titan. Apple has several teams working on different functions of the software. One team made up of two dozen former BlackBerry QNX customers are developing the base operating system and a second team are developing the software that will run on it.
