Not the Next Big Thing for Apple: Building Autonomous Cars

Not the Next Big Thing for Apple: Building Autonomous Cars

A few years ago, Apple had a secret.

In 2014, the tech giant began “Project Titan,” an under-wraps initiative with the lofty goal of innovating an Apple-branded autonomous vehicle to break into the competitive industry of self-driving cars.

In a previous post, we assumed Apple was toward the front end of the driverless car market, even though the company continually stalled its Project Titan efforts and remained weirdly quiet (typical Apple) about the advancements we thought it was making.

Now, Apple has halted all efforts on building autonomous vehicles. Instead, Apple will focus on the technology behind the self-driving car movement.

No Apple-Branded Vehicles in This Valley

Apple isn’t completely ghosting the race toward autonomous car innovation.

The future of transportation is still a big topic of conversation. With all the driverless car madness happening in Silicon Valley, we can’t expect Apple to step out of the game completely, can we?

Five individuals close to the project discussed the new direction of Project Titan to The New York Times — but they left out specific details, as they were not authorized to speak of Apple’s plans.

What they did say is that Apple is going to refine its efforts by focusing on creating the technology for a self-driving car that another company builds.

Apple is going to do what it does best: create the technology of autonomous cars.

However, Apple isn’t alone in these new efforts. Waymo, the self-driving-project-turned-company from Google, also has plans to focus solely on the hidden technology and not produce the vehicles — making Google a little further along than other Silicon Valley players.

Right now, it looks like there’s no way(mo) Apple can keep up with Google.

Weird Move, Apple

So, why is this groundbreaking automotive news?

Well, Apple has been known to be kind of a control freak. It tends to take authority over the ins and outs of a product — from the underlying software to the look and feel of the machinery itself.

Apple even went as far as hiring more than 1,000 experienced engineers to build the vehicles. They threw around innovative ideas like motorized doors, interiors with no steering wheel or gas pedal, and virtual reality in internal displays.

But it sounds like we’ll never get to see this rumored “Apple car.” Instead, we’ll get self-driving cars from other companies, integrated with Apple technology.

High Traffic Expected for the Race to Autonomous

So, how will Apple achieve these updated technology goals?

In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Apple CEO Tim Cook described autonomous automotive technology as the “the mother of all AI projects,” adding that it’s likely “one of the most difficult AI projects to work on.”

We don’t know the details just yet, but it looks like Apple plans on building partnerships with ride-hailing services (like Lyft and Uber) to transform its technology into a long-standing business operation.

In fact, Apple has already made great strides here, having invested $1 billion into Uber’s Chinese competitor, Didi Chuxing.

This idea isn’t unique to Apple, as Google made a similar move by partnering with Lyft.

What's Next for Autonomous Vehicles?

What’s the Next Move for Apple (and Autonomous)?

How will Apple differentiate its product from all the other ongoing efforts in the autonomous car industry? Will Project Titan be able to pass Waymo? Who will win the race to self-driving car technology?

There are a myriad questions being asked about autonomous vehicles. As automotive thinkers who are looking ahead, we’re fascinated by the conversation.

Read our posts on the benefits of self-driving cars, how they will bring people to a dealership, and the biggest problems with driverless cars.

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