Apple Self-Driving Car: CEO Tim Cook Confirms Autonomous Tech Plans
Apple CEO Tim Cook has finally confirmed that the Cupertino-based tech giant is indeed working on autonomous driving technology.
Given Apple's technological prowess, it's not surprising that a lot of consumers would love to own a self-driving car from the company. However, while Cook revealed that autonomous technology is "a core technology that we view as very important," self-driving cars is just one possible application.
"We're focusing on autonomous systems. And clearly, one purpose of autonomous systems is self-driving cars. There are others. And we sort of see it as the mother of all AI [artificial intelligence] projects. It's probably one of the most difficult AI projects actually to work on," Cook said in an interview with Bloomberg TV published earlier this week.
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Although Apple has confirmed its plans for autonomous systems, the chief executive refused to reveal specific information about what the company's plans are with regard to autonomous vehicle technology, specifically from a product point of view.
Apple venturing into the automobile segment has been in the rumor mill for a long time now. According to reports, the tech giant's so-called iCar has been in development since 2014 under the codename Project Titan. At one point, there were over 1,000 engineers working on the project.
However, last year, it was speculated that Apple was moving away from manufacturing their own self-driving cars and focusing more on the autonomous systems that power these vehicles.
In April, Apple unofficially joined the autonomous vehicle race when the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) granted the tech giant an autonomous vehicle testing permit.
At that time, Apple refused to comment on the reports, but a DMV spokeswoman told Business Insider that the permit would allow the tech giant to test three 2015 Lexus RX450h vehicles with six drivers.
Cook's announcement means that Apple has officially joined the already-crowded segment with many other automakers and companies working on their respective self-driving cars. One of Apple's fiercest rivals, Google, is said to be leading the pack. It remains to be seen in Apple can catch up.
