Apple seems to speeding ahead with its self-driving car program.
The iPhone maker has nearly doubled its fleet of autonomous test vehicles in California over the last few months, according to the Financial Times.
In January, Apple was operating 27 self-driving cars on the roads, but that number has since grown to 45 vehicles, data from California’s Department of Motor Vehicles shows.
The new report comes as some firms have suspended their autonomous driving tests following a fatal accident involving an Uber self-driving car this weekend.
Apple has nearly doubled its fleet of autonomous test vehicles in California over the last few months, with its fleet rising from 27 self-driving test cars to 45 cars total
If Apple’s fleet has increased this much, it has surged ahead of its rivals in terms of the size of its test fleet.
By comparison, Waymo, which is widely considered to be the leader in autonomous vehicle development, has shrunk its fleet down to 24 cars from more than 100 last June, the Financial Times noted.
Tesla has permits to test 39 cars, while Uber is testing 29 self-driving vehicles.
However, Uber has since halted all its self-driving tests in San Francisco, Phoenix, Pittsburgh and Toronto, following Sunday’s crash.
Police in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe say one of Uber’s self-driving vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian on Sunday night.
It’s widely believed to be the first fatal pedestrian crash involving its vehicles.
With Apple’s fleet totaling 45 vehicles, it’s now the second largest in the state of California, only behind General Motors, which has 110 test vehicles in California.
With Apple’s fleet totaling 45 vehicles, it’s now the second largest in the state of California, only behind General Motors, which has 110 test vehicles in California
California has increasingly become a hotbed for Silicon Valley tech giants to test their autonomous vehicles, alongside Arizona, which also has relatively lax regulations around self-driving car testing.
Apple has been rumored to be using a former Fiat Chrysler campus in Surprise, Ariz. to test its self-driving car platform.
It has also kept its efforts in California mostly under wraps, too.
Apple received its first permit to test three autonomous vehicles in California in April 2017.
But not much else is known about Apple’s self-driving car program, referred to internally as ‘Project Titan,’ beyond that.
It was reported in January that the company registered 27 Lexus SUVs with the California DMV.
Waymo has been trialling a self-driving car service (pictured) in Phoenix since April 2017, which lets passengers hail cars through an app for free
Prior to that, Apple chief Tim Cook gave a rare glimpse into the company’s self-driving car efforts last June.
He called autonomous vehicles the ‘mother of all’ artificial intelligence projects.
‘We do have a large project going and are making a big investment in this,’ Cook said.
‘The autonomous systems can be used in a variety of ways and a vehicle is only one.’
‘There are many different areas of it and I don’t want to go any further with that,’ Cook added.
Few details have leaked about what Apple may be working on.
IS APPLE DEVELOPING ITS OWN SELF-DRIVING CAR?
Chief Executive Tim Cook has suggested that Apple wants to move beyond integration of Apple smartphones into vehicle infotainment systems.
Apple officially secured a permit to test autonomous vehicles in California on April 14.
Rumours began sweeping the web since last year that Apple was toying with the idea of developing its own self-driving car.
But Apple executives have been coy about their interest in the vehicles.
Chief Executive Tim Cook has suggested that Apple wants to move beyond integration of Apple smartphones into vehicle infotainment systems.
He has called autonomous vehicles the ‘mother of all’ artificial intelligence projects.
But few other details have emerged about what Apple is actually working on.
In self-driving cars, LIDAR sensors constantly scan the surrounding areas looking for information and acting as the ‘eyes’ of the car
One of Apple’s self-driving test cars, called ‘The Thing,’ was spotted by some onlookers late last year.
The SUVs look like any unsuspecting vehicle, aside from the huge white ‘Star Wars’ sensors on top of the car’s roof.
The roof has six LIDAR — or light detection and ranging — sensors situated on top to help the car ‘see’ its surroundings.
Some even compared the test vehicles to Stormtroopers.
Many believed Project Titan would result in Apple building and releasing its own self-driving cars.
Now, experts say Apple is more likely to create its own underlying autonomous technology that it licenses to automakers and other self-driving car developers.