Former chief vehicle engineer at Tesla comes back to Apple and its secretive self-driving car program

A recent hire (or re-hire) shows us that Apple might not be ready to give up on its self-driving car program just yet. Doug Field, the former vice president of Mac hardware, left Apple to join Tesla as its chief vehicle engineer. Now, Field is back with Apple and is working on the company’s “Project Titan” self-driving car program. He was in charge of Tesla’s vehicle production and engineering before CEO Elon Musk to over production after the company failed to meet its first-quarter goal for the Model 3. Field took a leave of absence in May and then left the company altogether.

Field’s return to Apple is an interesting move as reports claim that Apple has been scaling Project Titan back with hundreds of people leaving the division. Apple is reportedly focusing on finding carmakers to partner with to develop its self-driving software. With Field back, it could suggest that Apple might still be thinking of producing the cars itself. But, of course, this is something we won’t know until Apple confirms the news.

Source: The Verge

Toyota now has a self-driving car company to focus on software systems

Toyota fully committing to its autonomous driving initiatives and is now making sure the research it has been working on in the field gets the focus it needs. The company just established the Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development or TRI-AD, for short. It’s a sub-company underneath the Toyota Research Institute, which is already working on the company’s self-driving car programs. Toyota is partnering with auto-parts manufacturer Aisin Seiki and Denso and will be investing US$2.8 billion into the company and hire around 1,000 employees for the company.

The focus of TRI-AD will be on developing software systems for self-driving vehicles. “Building production-quality software is a critical success factor for Toyota’s automated driving program,” said Dr. James Kuffner, the former CTO of TRI and the new CEO of TRI-AD. “This company’s mission is to accelerate software development in a more effective and disruptive way, by augmenting the Toyota Group’s capability through the hiring of world-class software engineers. We will recruit globally, and I am thrilled to lead this effort.”

Source: BGR

Ford to invest US$1 billion into autonomous vehicle startup Argo AI

REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

Not wanting to be left behind in the self-driving car race, Ford is pouring a US$1 billion investment over five years at Argo AI. The previously unheard of startup is led by Uber and Google veterans. They will be working with Ford’s team to create a fully self-driving car by 2021. The cars will be used for commercial ride sharing fleets. Argo AI won’t be owned by Ford but the company is the largest shareholder. The startup will be focusing on artificial intelligence and robotics side of the system to help develop Ford’s “virtual driver system.”

Argo AI plans to hire 200 more employees to get the job done. A possible enticement when it comes to recruitment is that employees could have equity stake in the company. "They have the opportunity to run it pretty independently with a board, but because it is a separate company or subsidiary, it has the opportunity to go out and recruit with competitive compensation packages and equity,” Ford Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields says at a press conference.

Google partners with Chrysler to out self-driving minivans

Google’s road to releasing self-driving cars has been bumpy, to say the least. But that isn’t stopping them from developing the technology. Google is now collaborating with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) to put their technology into Fiat Chrysler minivans. According to Google: “FCA will design the minivans so it’s easy for us to install our self-driving systems, including the computers that hold our self-driving software, and the sensors that enable our software to see what’s on the road around the vehicle. The minivan design also gives us an opportunity to test a larger vehicle that could be easier for passengers to enter and exit, particularly with features like hands-free sliding doors.”

Don’t expect this to be available on showroom floors just yet though even if they plan to test it out on roads by the end of the year. At the moment, this just helps Chrysler leverage Google’s tech and Google find out how to integrate its technologies into the assembly line for future release of autonomous cars, or in this case minivans.

Source: Google | Via: The Next Web