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A new report has rekindled rumors about Apple's ultra-secret self-driving automobile unit, known as Project Titan.
Citing three sources close to the case, Reuters reported Wednesday that the company's self-driving unit was exploring options for a "revolutionary design" of lidar sensors. The company has spoken with at least four unidentified companies, the press service reported, specifically seeking to identify a new generation of "smaller, cheaper and more easily mbad-produced" sensors.
LIDAR sensors (light detection and telemetry) can be used to help autonomous vehicles navigate their environment with the help of some kind of 3D mapping system. In addition to exploring a design better suited to large-scale production than that currently used on autonomous vehicles, Apple would also be looking for a sensor capable of detecting objects at hundreds of times. meters.
In addition to meeting other companies in search of a revolutionary lidar sensor, Reuters also reported, Apple is also growing on its own site.
The report would seem to indicate that Apple's autonomous car project does not focus exclusively on software, as was previously badumed (although no one knows it, thanks to the narrow nature of this project and the development of Apple to large).
According to a source who spoke to Reuters, the company may be interested in controlling sensors and software that govern autonomous vehicles, even if the car itself is not manufactured by Apple. Indeed, Apple is currently using Lexus SUVs equipped with lidar sensors to test autonomous technology on public roads, as it has done since 2017.
For years, rumors have been circulating about the company's ambitions for autonomous technology. We initially thought that Apple was developing its own iCar (for now, we do not know how it would have been called). Reports in recent years would seem to indicate that the company had favored software, but rumors and speculation persist that an autonomous car from Apple could arrive by 2025.
In 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed to Bloomberg that the company "focused on standalone systems," which she dubbed "the mother of all AI projects." In August, Apple hired former Tesla CEO Doug Field to help him lead the Titan project. Bob Mansfield.
A restructuring that affected some 200 employees of this team took place in January. An Apple spokesman told CNBC at the time that the company "continues[s] to believe that autonomous systems offer tremendous opportunities, that Apple has unique capabilities to make its contribution and that it is the most ambitious machine learning project of all time. "
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