Apple’s plans for their own electric, self-driving car has to be one of the worst-kept secrets of the tech industry, and a recent report from the California DMV only serves to suggest that Apple is most definitely ramping up their efforts in their testing as the agency claims that Apple’s self-driving cars have logged twice the mileage in 2020 compared to that of 2019.
The past couple of weeks have been a flurry of Apple Car-related news and rumors, with reports claiming that Hyundai and Apple were in talks to build the company’s rumored “Apple Car”. However, on Friday it was reported that those talks were put on hold and now according to a new report from Bloomberg, those talks have since come to an end.
Apple’s plans for their own car have been kind of an open secret. While the company has never quite normally acknowledged their plans, all their various hires have certainly suggested as such. This is why it was surprising when Hyundai actually kind of confirmed that they were in talks with Apple to help them build their car.
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While it might be a while before we see fully autonomous cars become mainstream, Tesla’s efforts are certainly evidence that we are progressing rather nicely. This is thanks to Whole Mars Catalog who recently shared a video on YouTube where they put Tesla’s Full Self-Driving beta feature to the test somewhat successfully.
While we have heard rumors about Apple making their own car in the past, recently the project was put under the spotlight again when it was suggested that it could debut in the next 4-5 years. So much so that when asked on LinkedIn about such a car, Volkswagen’s CEO replied by saying that they are looking forward to the competition.
One of the benefits of having a computer take the reins during a drive is that it has the potential to be more efficient, so imagine if an entire city were to take advantage of self-driving shuttles that can quickly and more nimbly ferry passengers around. This is the concept behind Toyota’s e-Palette electric autonomous shuttles.
It has been rumored for a while that Apple could be working on a car of their own, and a more recent report suggested that the car could actually be launched in 2024. Now according to a new report from Reuters, they have “confirmed” the previous report and added a claim that the car will come with a “breakthrough battery”.
Self-driving cars seem like something that we can look forward to in the future. There is a lot of potential behind the technology, such as the potential to reduce accidents as computers should have faster reaction times than us, which means that avoiding obstacles and anticipating other drivers around us should be better.
Autonomous or self-driving cars appear to be something we can look forward to in the future, but in case you didn’t know, there are actually different levels to autonomy. For the most part, a lot of self-driving cars being developed today and are on the streets, like those made by Tesla, are considered a level 2.
In order for self-drivings cars to be able to detect what’s around them, like people, objects, or other cars, it relies on a variety of sensors. One of those sensors is LiDAR which Apple has famously included in its newer iPads and also the iPhone 12 Pro series, and it looks like Apple is now taking that technology and applying it to a self-driving car system.
It is possible that in the future, self-driving cars will become the new standard. After all, if everyone uses self-driving cars, in theory it should be a lot safer as it takes out issues like human error. However, a recently-held self-driving car race has shown that maybe the tech isn’t quite ready for prime time just yet.
Tesla has always been pretty careful when marketing its Autopilot feature, which they have insisted in the past does not turn their vehicles into self-driving cars, even though for the most part it does have certain autonomous capabilities. However, it has not stopped Tesla owners from treating it as such.
One of the perks of self-driving cars is that, well, it drives itself. This means that in theory, you could be doing something else while the car is being driven. However, this is often not advised because there could be situations where it might need human intervention and if you’re distracted, then it could lead to disastrous consequences.
As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, companies who have had plans for 2020 to launch new products or services have no doubt had to put them on the backburner. For example, we’ve seen how several major events being cancelled, and there are also rumors that products like the iPhone could be delayed.
A couple of years ago, there was a Tesla that was involved in a fatal crash. Now according to the NTSB, it seems that they are laying some of the blame on Apple for the crash. While the governing body did lay most of the blame on Tesla, it seems that they believe that Apple should shoulder some of the responsibility.
Cars these days are getting smarter where they come with a variety of sensors and cameras on board that can warn drivers of obstacles. All of this seems to be paving the way towards a future of self-driving cars, but it seems that there still needs to be some work done on them, especially when they can be tricked with a simple two-inch piece of tape.
As a delivery and logistics company, UPS has been rather aggressive in finding new high-tech ways of staying ahead of the competition. The company has explored the possibility of using drones to help make deliveries, and now it seems that they are looking at the possibility of self-driving delivery vans.
Right now when it comes to self-driving vehicles, one of the general rules that many follow around the world is that there needs to be a human behind the “wheel”. This is because in the event that something goes wrong, the human can take over and steer the car away or apply the brakes to prevent accidents.