UPDATED: Apple has drastically cut back its work on creating driverless car systems, having reportedly reassigned hundreds of its staff who were previously working on its Project Titan driverless car mission.
Reuters reports that people familiar with the project noted many staff working on it left under their own volition or were moved elsewhere by the Cupertino company.
Apple looks like it is continuing to shun objectives to crate a standalone driverless car system and is instead focusing on creating software to support autonomous driving.
12/09/2016: Apple may be rethinking its driverless car plans as other companies accelerate ahead in bringing autonomous vehicles to the road.
According The New York Times, sources from Apple have said the company has laid off dozens of employees who were working of Apple’s attempts to get into driverless car technology.
The Cupertino company’s autonomous vehicle plans and ambitions have expectedly not been made public, given Apple’s reputations for secrecy, but its driverless car development to date has reportedly been operating under the codename Titan for the past two yeas.
However, it would appear that Apple has not made much progress over that period and could be reworking the focus of Titan from creating an autonomous car to developing underlying technology for driverless car systems, as the workers let go were informed it is part of an effort to “reboot” the project.
Apple’s potential pivot makes sense given the number of companies working on driverless car technology, from high-profile tech companies like Google and Uber, to the major car makers and startups.
The mission to make drivers passengers in their own cars is a major undertaking, requiring techniques such as sensor fusion and the use of deep learning neural networks, so for a gadget maker to make a foray into the arena could be seen as a lofty ambition.
Furthermore, Apple has a habit of not leaping into a technology area until is is fairly mature and the company has the opportunity to release a refined and immaculately designed take on it; given it’s early days for driverless cars, it may come as no surprise that Apple is reworking its autonomous vehicle strategy.
While Apple applies the brakes on its driverless car development, other companies have hit the throttle in order to speed up their autonomous technology development.
Volvo has entered into a joint agreement with automotive safety group Autoliv to form a new company with the mission to develop autonomous driving software and advanced driver assistance systems.
“By combining our know how and resources we will create a world leader in AD (autonomous drive) software development. This means we can introduce this exciting technology to our customers faster,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars.
While the new company has yet to be given a name, it is an indication of how some firms in the automotive and technology industry are keenly focused on making driverless cars a major part of the roads of tomorrow.
Head over to London’s Greenwich and you may be able to catch a glimpse of driverless pods being put to the test as part of the area’s GATEway project.
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Apple has the resources to explore new technologies and shows proper restraint when the technology isn't up to Apple's standards. As Steve Jobs once said, “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”