I know that Apple’s Maps have received its fair share of brickbats since it was released, but that is pretty much water under the bridge by now. In fact, we now have word that Apple’s iPad has been used to integrate itself in a self-driving car, where it will handle navigation as well as user interface duties. As for the former, I sure as heck hope that it relies on Google Maps and not Apple Maps! This self-driving car was made possible thanks to researchers over at Oxford University, having come up with the relevant robotic technology that enables drivers let the iPad do all the “driving”.
Professor Paul Newman of Oxford University’s Department of Engineering Science, said, “We are working on a low-cost ‘auto drive’ navigation system, that doesn’t depend on GPS, done with discrete sensors that are getting cheaper all the time.It’s easy to imagine that this kind of technology could be in a car you could buy.”
This technology is far from perfect, and is definitely not ready for commercial production, although the long term goal is to churn out a system that costs approximately £100, which is a whole lot less compared to the current prototype navigation system that costs a whopping £5,000.
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