Following years of Apple being characteristically tight-lipped as to whether it’s been working on an autonomous car project, CEO Tim Cook is finally ready to admit to the world that yes, Apple is working on a self-driving car system.
In an interview with Bloomberg Television following the WWDC keynote, Cook described the autonomous driving system as “a core technology that we view as very important,” but stopped well short of saying Apple was actually building its own car. “We’ll see where it takes us,” he said.
The project, which is said to have been dubbed “Project Titan”, shows that Apple seems to be serious about its effort in this field.
Apple’s car endeavors have been well documented by the rumor mill, with Bloomberg reporting last year that the company cut hundreds of jobs and scaled back its ambitions. At the time, the publication said “hundreds of members of the car team” had been let go or reassigned to other areas of the company, leaving the project somewhat in doubt.
Bloomberg has also reported that the project’s new leadership refocused the company’s efforts on developing an autonomous driving system that gives Apple “flexibility” to partner with existing carmakers.
Apple entered the car world back in 2014 via its CarPlay efforts, which sought to integrate an iPhone-powered system with existing automobile systems to display messages, calls, maps, and music. In iOS 11, a feature called Do Not Disturb While Driving will detect when someone is driving and automatically silence notifications to keep the screen dark and distraction-free.
It’s also been noted that Cook himself is extremely bullish on electric cars and this field. Having called the experience “marvelous” and “a major disruption”, Cook has extolled the benefits of not having to stop at a gas station and cutting down on the number of vehicles through ridesharing.
As of now, no one definitively knows what Apple’s plans for an automotive-based product are, but it’ll be interesting to see what comes down the pipe.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.