Apple, the most valued technology company in the world, has been working on a Driverless Car technology for quite some time. The company has not officially said so, but let's just say that it is not the best-kept secret.
As per the latest reports, California DMV just gave permission to Apple to carry out testing of its driverless car technology. When asked about this development, Apple did not comment on it, but the company's spokesperson said that they would continue to invest in autonomous technology, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
About patent and permission to test
The available information regarding this suggests that Apple filed for patent number 20160358485 at the US Patent & Trademark Office. This was for a computer graphics software named “Collision Avoidance Of Arbitrary Polygonal Obstacles.”
As described, the technique “uses simple geometry to identify which edges of which obstacles an agent is most likely to collide." This suggests that the software will calculate "avoidance force" needed to avoid a potential crash.
Apple Car? Or just driverless car tech?
This implies that Apple is very near to testing its driverless car technology. What needs to be noted here is that it doesn't mean that Apple is coming up with something like Apple Car or Apple iCar.
It just means that the company has reached a phase where it needs to test its technology.
Several reports have suggested that Apple earlier considered making its autonomous car to rival the likes of Tesla. The project was codenamed Project Titan, but it seems to be no longer in working. Instead, the company is now focusing on the technology part only, and not the entire product.
Other companies working in the autonomous car technology
Apart from Apple, Californication has given permission to 29 more companies for testing purposes. These companies include Volkswagen Group of America, Mercedes-Benz, Google, Delphi Automotive, Tesla Motors, Bosch, Nissan, GM Cruise LLC, BMW, Honda, Ford, Zoox, Inc., Drive.ai, Inc., Faraday & Future Inc., Baidu USA LLC, Wheego Electric Cars Inc., Valeo North America, Inc., NextEV USA, Inc., Telenav, Inc., NVIDIA Corporation, AutoX Technologies Inc, Subaru, Udacity, Inc, Navya Inc., Renovo Motors Inc, UATC LLC (Uber), PlusAi Inc, Nuro, Inc, and CarOne LLC.
Uber has already started testing its technology since last year. It used Volvo XC90s for the San Francisco pilot instead of the self-driving Ford Fusions which it uses in Pittsburgh. On the other hand, Udacity is offering courses related to the technology and is also allowing students to test their code live, that too remotely.
