Apple has been talking to multiple automobile manufacturers around the globe and they even tried to purchase McLaren outright to build their own car.
Despite all the rumors and the official information, the tech giant continued to deny that they don’t have interest in making cars. However, a new statement from director of product integrity, Steve Kenner confirmed that Apple is indeed interested in self-driving cars and the potential of making connected cars a reality. The director had a discussion about the company’s future plans with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration during which he revealed the big information.
According to the statement released, Kenner said that Apple is interested in the potential that automated transportation could bring to people. They are committed to make huge investments in large scale machine learning and infrastructure which would support this initiative. The brand got in touch with the NHTSA because without their approval it is never possible to bring large scale autonomous cars on roads. Google and many other companies are still struggling to acquire permissions to bring them to every state.
“With machine learning, Apple has been able to achieve a sophisticated level of product delivery that are personal, intuitive and smarter. Such services have enabled the company to stay ahead of competitors and the same should go in, if we get into the transportation industry. Automated systems sound interesting and has a lot of potential to it,” said Kenner in the letter he wrote to the administration.
Before the initiative, the brand is keen on ensuring that they follow all safety principles and ensure the highest level of protection before bringing it to their users. Sharing data is essential to make it easy for the cars and it should be done between all top manufacturers to better understand scenarios. The letter, which is said to be detailed also states that the safety board should have an open mind to treat top manufacturers and new entrants on the same level so as to boost the technology.
While the letter from Kenner is not an official announcement, it does confirm Apple’s interest in connected cars and the company maybe building one of their own. They hired multiple top personnel from Tesla among other automobile manufacturers to build their division. It may take a couple of years for them to actually announce and bring their new product to the market, if the Apple Car is coming, that is!