Apple won’t be building its own self-driving car.
Now, according to five unnamed sources, the company, which sought partnerships with the luxury carmakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz to develop an all-electric self-driving car, has signed a deal with Volkswagen to turn some of the carmaker’s new T6 Transporter vans into Apple’s self-driving shuttles for employees. This project, in turn, is said to be behind schedule and consuming nearly all of the Apple car team’s attention,
Well, this could be one for the bug team to sort out.
A number of oPhone SE early adopters have reported audio issues with Bluetooth phone calls when the smartphone is paired with a vehicle or wireless headset. The issue extends to GPS voice navigation for some, but streaming music over Bluetooth appears to be unaffected.
The users claimed to be experiencing distorted, staticky, or inaudible phone calls when using an iPhone SE over Bluetooth. Many of those affected noted that their previous iPhone model had “crystal clear” audio quality.
Over the past couple of weeks, there’s been word of an employee poaching war between Apple and Tesla, Apple hiring from the auto industry and speculation as to exactly what Applee might be working on.
It’s apparently clear that Apple is looking to go beyond an iOS-based CarPlay in-dash system and the majority of the new hires seem to be reporting to one Steve Zadesky, who hails from an automative background.
The Wall Street Journal and 9to5Mac are reporting that Apple has put together a team of hundreds for the electric vehicle product, including former president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Research & Development Johann Jungwirth, but here are some of the other key team members picked from within the company and hired from outside to join the team.
This could be nifty if you’re in the market for a new car in the coming year.
Per AppleInsider and The Verge, Chevrolet took the wraps off its new 2016 Volt at the North American International Auto Show on Monday, revealing that the next-generation electric vehicle will feature support for Apple’s CarPlay in its infotainment system.
The new 2016 Volt was on display on the show floor and reporters spotted mention of CarPlay in the vehicle’s dash. Support for general Bluetooth and MirrorLink was also featured, albeit an Android Auto feature was found to be missing.
Google’s Nest project is starting to get some promising collaboration partners.
Per CNET, Nest has been tacking on product partners since its initial developer program announcement last June. With several big-name integrations already secured — Dropcam, Mercedes-Benz, Whirlpool — this open-software-collaboration, dubbed “Works with Nest,” appears to have caught on.
August, LG, Philips Hue and UniKey have all just been inducted into Works with Nest and the related integrations are available right now.