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Tag: self-driving

  • Apple cancels permit for company’s self-driving car testing process

    Apple cancels permit for company’s self-driving car testing process

    Apple’s self-driving car project may be coming to an end.

    The California Department of Motor Vehicles has canceled the company’s permit for self-driving vehicles. The move comes at Apple’s request, and could indicate that its years-long effort to create a self-driving car may be in doubt.

    Apple had a permit for testing autonomous vehicles on roads with a safety driver until April 30, 2025. Per MacReports, Apple contacted the DMV to cancel its Autonomous Vehicles Program Manufacturer’s Testing Permit.

    The DMV then contacted Apple by letter on September 25, confirming Apple’s request to cancel the permit, and that it would end by September 27, 2024.

    Without the permit, Apple is unable to conduct self-driving vehicle tests on public roads.

    Apple had first received its permit in 2017, with it expanding the fleet and team of drivers over time. While it had previously employed over 200 drivers for the project, as of May 2024, it had 68 registered vehicles and just 15 registered drivers.

    Back in February, a report indicated that Apple’s employees considered Apple’s Project Titan project was a “Titanic disaster” and a failure. Another report in March said that the challenge of a full self-driving vehicle system was insurmountable, even for Apple.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via AppleInsider and MacReports

  • U.S. Secretary for Transportation warns against driving a car while using an Apple Vision Pro headset

    U.S. Secretary for Transportation warns against driving a car while using an Apple Vision Pro headset

    In what may be the most obvious government declaration/warning in human history, the U.S. Secretary for Transportation has issued a warning to remind drivers that they must be “fully engaged” after more footage emerges of an Apple Vision Pro being used behind the wheel.

    The declaration comes only days after a Tesla driver apparently decided to use an Apple Vision Pro while driving. It’s thought that the Tesla was using its driver assistance mode, although the Secretary of Transportation has released video of an even more dangerous example.

    The video shared on Twitter by Secretary Pete Buttigieg shows a driver performing quite intricate hand movements to control the Apple Vision Pro he’s wearing. What’s most significant, however, is that he is doing this while driving a Tesla Cybertruck.

    The newly-released Cybertruck has no self-driving features, and the driver seems sufficiently distracted in the process. If the car did have driver assistance, though, his vision would still be impaired — and the car could hand back control at any moment.

    Secretary Buttigieg has not commented further and it isn’t known what happened to this particular driver.

    Although Apple has yet to specifically comment on this incident, it has stressed that Apple Vision Pro should only be worn in a safe place.

    “Never use Apple Vision Pro while operating a moving vehicle, bicycle, heavy machinery,” its support documentation says, “or in any other situations requiring attention to safety.”

    In other words, please be careful out there, and never, ever drive a car with your Apple Vision Pro adhered to your face.

    Via AppleInsider and @SecretaryPete

  • Rumor: Apple could invest roughly $3.6 billion in Kia to produce 100,000 “Apple Car” units per year

    Rumor: Apple could invest roughly $3.6 billion in Kia to produce 100,000 “Apple Car” units per year

    The Apple/Kia auto project rumors continue.

    A new report from South Korean news outlet Dong-A has indicated that Apple and Kia are close to reaching a deal that would see Apple invest about 4 trillion won (roughly $3.6 billion) on a collaborative “Apple Car” project with the company.

    The report, which doesn’t cite sources, says that Apple and Kia could strike a production deal on February 27th. Once complete, the companies are eyeing a production run in 2024 with an initial capacity of 100,000 cars per year, though the plant can ramp up to a maximum of 400,000 units a year, the report says. 

    The terms of the contract are currently unknown, and it is unclear as to what the supposed investment might cover.

    On Tuesday, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in a note to investors predicted the iPhone maker will work with Kia parent company Hyundai on the design and manufacture of an electric vehicle. 

    The “Apple Car” will supposedly be built on Hyundai’s E-GMP electic vehicle platform, with Hyundai Mobis offering assistance with component design and production. Ku stated that Kia might handle production while Apple takes on the self-driving hardware and software, semiconductors, battery technologies, form factor and user experience. 

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via AppleInsider, Bloomberg, and Dong-A

  • Rumor: Apple working with chip supplier TSMC to develop “self-driving chip” for Apple Car project

    While there hasn’t been a ton of Apple Car news of late, a recent rumor through the supply chain has stated that Apple is said to be in “preliminary cooperation negotiations” with well-known automotive electronics suppliers as it continues to hire new employees from Tesla and other manufacturers. Apple is working with “upstream and downstream” electronics suppliers to ensure that it meets current regulations.

    The current discussions have been likened to a “request for quotation” model, wherein Apple details its requirements and asks for pricing and other details from vendors.

    Apple is also said to be working to establish a factory in the United States, and it’s thought that there’s currently a production plan in place with preliminary technology specifications.

    Apple chip supplier TSMC is also said to be working with Apple on a “self-driving chip” at an R&D plant. TSMC is apparently collaborating with STMicroelectronics to further develop gallium nitride (GaN) technology that will be used in hybrid car converters and chargers that are thought to be related to the Apple Car project.

    Apple is rumored to be en route to unveil an Apple Car in 2024 to 2025, sources in the supply chain having compared the model as “similar to Tesla.”

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via MacRumors and DigiTimes

  • Recent patent hints at radar system embedded into bodywork of Apple’s self-driving car

    The Apple Car may not be on the market for a while, but a recently published patent application shows how Apple may be embedding a radar system of sorts within the bodywork.

    Per AppleInsider:

    In Apple’s design, it suggests the use of antennas to transmit a radar beam towards a portion of a field of view, along with a vertical antenna array to receive the bounced-back signal. The receive antenna array can consist of multiple antenna elements grouped into sub-arrays, with each sub-array used to receive scatter signals reflected back at it from a smaller subsection of the field of view. Circuitry is then used to combine the received scatter signals from the antenna array into a combined scatter signal, which is then digitized. A second horizontal receive array performs a similar job, again with sub-arrays and the same process. A signal processor is then used to process the scatter signals from both vertical and horizontal arrays, and to correlate the data from each to give effectively a 3D radar layout.

    Thus, a fairly effective radar system, which can be used for navigation, collision avoidance, or any number of useful features.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via The Mac Observer, AppleInsider, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office