Apple looks to be working on an autonomous system for cars

Apple has been rumoured to have put a halt to its secret autonomous vehicle initiative. But it seems it hasn’t abandoned the idea after all. A new regulatory filing uncovered by VentureBeat shows Apple’s intent for working in said industry. In a letter to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Apple urges the government to not restrict testing of self-driving vehicles so that there will be safe deployment of “highly automated vehicles.” Apple says in the letter that they use machine learning in different aspects, including transportation industry.

The tech giant also hopes that both existing manufacturers and “new entrants” be treated equally to make the most of the safety benefits of the technology. This can be interpreted as Apple hoping it gets the same treatment as other more established manufacturers working in the autonomous vehicle space. According to a statement released to Financial Times, Apple says the letter is the company’s way to make sure that the NHTSA defines the best practices for the “machine learning and autonomous systems.” Apple won’t outright discuss its efforts in the field yet but this hints at the possibility that Apple is still working on at the very least a self-driving platform.

Source: 9to5Mac

Apple might be shifting gears on its autonomous vehicle initiative

Google's own self-driving initiative has been hitting the roads for a while already,

Reports have started to surface that Apple’s secret car project might be getting put on hold and undergoing a strategy shift. The self-driving car initiative is going through what the New York Times calls a “reboot” with dozens of employees working on Project Titan getting laid off and Apple veteran Bob Mansfield coming back onboard to lead the project. Apple has been working on this secret project for about two years and seems to have struggled to make progress. They haven’t been able to differentiate themselves from the other tech and car companies working on their own self-driving technology.

As mentioned, the project is supposedly undergoing a strategy change, with Apple focusing more on developing the underlying technology for autonomous vehicles. That could mean they would partner with other car companies that are developing their own self-driving cars. But, of course, we don’t know yet if this project will happen. And if Apple would actually be okay with developing technology for others. Only time will tell.

Source: Recode

Volvo to co-develop and sell autonomous driving tech

It’s a more common occurrence for car manufacturers to keep their autonomous driving technology to themselves. But Volvo is breaking away from that and is looking to sell the technology it develops with Swedish automotive safety supplier Autoliv. The two companies will move all their autonomous vehicle software development and intellectual property into this new joint venture. The venture will start off with 200 employees, which is split between existing staff of both companies, and will eventually grow to over 600 people. The company is expected to begin operations at the start of 2017. And they hope to sell the first of its products by 2019 with technologies becoming available by 2021. The joint venture’s headquarters will be in Gothenburg, Sweden a.k.a. Volvo’s hometown.

Source: The Verge

Singapore starts testing autonomous taxis on its roads

A few self-driving Mitsubishi i-MiEV and Renault Zoe are shuttling around a few dozen Singaporeans for free with this new trial run by a company called nuTonomy. The company, which spun off from MIT in 2013 has offices in Massachusetts and Singapore, is testing out its autonomous vehicle technology in a 2.5-square-mile residential area called “One-North” with an end goal of lessening traffic congestion in the city state. The taxis are equipped with six Lidar sets and two cameras to help it keep track of obstacles, lanes, and traffic light changes. There is also an engineer onboard to help make sure everything stays safe.

The company hopes to open the trials to thousands of users in the coming months and launch as early as 2018. What they are testing and gathering now is data related to “software system performance, vehicle routing efficiency, the vehicle booking process, and the overall passenger experience.” A bug has been noted by an Associated Press reporter who noticed that the safety driver had to hit the brakes when a parked vehicle moved suddenly into an oncoming lane.

Source: Engadget