Apple Drops Hints About Autonomous-Vehicle Project
December 03 2016 - 2:44AM
Dow Jones News
By Tim Higgins and Tripp Mickle
Apple Inc. took its biggest step toward acknowledging it is
working on autonomous vehicles, writing a letter to U.S. regulators
offering feedback on proposed guidelines for the emerging
technology.
The letter from Steve Kenner, Apple's director of product
integrity, to the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration offered no details on the project, but said Apple
"is investing heavily in the study of machine learning and
automation, and is excited about the potential of automated systems
in many areas, including transportation."
Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple has been working on its car
effort, code-named Project Titan, for several years, but has never
publicly acknowledged it. The secrecy has made the exact status of
Project Titan hard to pinpoint. The Wall Street Journal reported in
September that Apple had restructured some elements of the project,
which has had several hundred employees working on it, after
placing it under veteran Apple executive Bob Mansfield in July.
The five-page letter, dated Nov. 22, appears on the NHTSA
website. It isn't clear when it was posted.
"We've provided comments to NHTSA because Apple is investing
heavily in machine learning and autonomous systems," Apple
spokesman Tom Neumayr said Friday. "There are many potential
applications for these technologies, including the future of
transportation, so we want to work with NHTSA to help define the
best practices for the industry."
The letter comes as the Obama administration rushes to put
guidelines in place to help guide self-driving development.
Alphabet Inc.'s self-driving project had already collected more
than 2 million miles of public-roadway testing and General Motors
Co. this year competed a $1 billion deal to acquire Cruise
Automation to jump start its autonomous vehicle program.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 03, 2016 02:29 ET (07:29 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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