Ondrej Holzman Apple is very loath to divulge details about its products and plans before introducing them to the world. However, there are areas where he will have to communicate at least part of his plans in advance, as they are significantly regulated by law. These are mainly healthcare and transportation, and the Californian firm has now publicly admitted that it is working on autonomous vehicles.
Until now, any automotive endeavors of Apple have been the subject of speculation and the company itself did not want to comment on the matter. Only CEO Tim Cook has hinted a few times that this is indeed a possible area of interest. In a published letter to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), however, Apple openly admitted its plans for the first time. In addition, he supplemented it with an official statement in which he really confirms the work on autonomous systems.
In the letter to Apple, the authority requests, among other things, that the same conditions be established for all participants, i.e. existing manufacturers and newcomers to the automotive industry. Established car companies now have, for example, a simplified path to testing autonomous vehicles on public roads within the framework of various laws, while new players have to apply for various exemptions and it may not be so easy to get to such testing. Apple requests the same treatment especially with regard to security and the development of all related elements.
[su_pullquote align=”right”]"Apple is investing heavily in machine learning and autonomous systems."[/su_pullquote]
In the letter, Apple describes the "significant societal benefits" associated with automated cars, which it sees as a life-saving technology with the potential to prevent millions of crashes and thousands of road deaths each year. The letter to the American regulator unusually openly reveals the plans of Apple, which has so far managed to formally keep the project a secret despite various indications.
“We provided NHTSA with our comments because Apple is investing heavily in machine learning and autonomous systems. There are many potential uses for these technologies, including the future of transportation, so we want to work with NHTSA to help define best practices for the entire industry," an Apple spokesperson commented in the letter.
Apple also writes about the use of various technologies in transport in the letter itself from November 22, which is signed by Steve Kenner, director of Apple's product integrity. The firm is also dealing with the issue of user privacy with NHTSA, which should be preserved despite the need to share data between manufacturers for greater safety and to address other issues such as ethical issues.
Apple's current focus on the development of machine learning and autonomous systems does not for the time being confirm that the company should work on its own car. For example, provision of the given technologies to other manufacturers remains an option. "In my opinion, it's only a matter of time before Apple starts talking about a car project directly. Especially when he encourages open data sharing in a letter to NHTSA,” he is convinced Tim Bradshaw, Editor Financial Times.
At the moment, according to unnamed sources, all that is known is that Apple's automotive project, called Project Titan, has been in development since the summer led by experienced manager Bob Mansfield. A few weeks later, the news appeared that the company began to focus mainly on its own self-driving system, which would also correspond to the letter described above.
In the coming months, it should be interesting to watch the developments surrounding Apple's car project. Given the highly regulated industry, Apple will have to reveal a lot of information and data up front, willy-nilly. A similarly regulated market is also encountered in the field of healthcare, where an increasing number of products from ResearchKit to Health to CareKit are entering.
As from the official letters of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found out magazine Mobi Health News, Apple has been systematically cooperating with the FDA for three years, that is, since it first entered the healthcare industry in a significant way. However, the Californian company continues to do everything to keep its actions secret. The proof is the fact that, after the highly publicized meeting with the FDA in 2013, both parties took a number of steps to prevent them from attending numerous other meetings.
For the time being, Apple is managing to cooperate with the relevant authorities and other institutions in the field of healthcare in such a way that it does not have to reveal most of what it is planning to the public in advance. However, given that its footprint in the healthcare industry is getting bigger and bigger, it's probably only a matter of time before it has to move to a different form of cooperation with the FDA as well. The same thing awaits him in the automotive industry.
Ah, so the latter have to give Apple everything they discovered in the development of autonomous cars, so that novices and companies that have already spent tens, maybe hundreds of millions of USD, have the same conditions at the beginning :-)
This reminds me of how Apple sued Samsung for "Slide to unlock" :-)
I don't see, but did we both read the same article? So I didn't understand anything like that from the article.
you see, I understood from that article what DFX, apple wants to enforce shared data within the industry, on which it wants to train its system (getting this data is the most difficult thing, training the system is no longer such a big problem... well, if you drive cars and collect the data so you have it, if you don't collect it then you don't have it and you can't even make such a system...companies like Mercedes, Tesla or Google have cars that drive and collect data that is useful for training, Apple doesn't have anything like that and that's why they provide a train ,...apple should send the fuck away, or in return apple should opensource everything it has, it is necessary for my new company that wants to produce clones of apple devices...)
Well, it seems to me that you write quite nonsense... Doing business for Apple, you try and try the same thing... I don't see a problem with it... :)
and if I were to sell drugs and kidnap people, I would commit murder, extortion and the like.
but that doesn't mean it's okay :], it's not
Ad: "In addition to its letter, in which Apple asks the authority to establish fair conditions between newcomers in the automotive industry and established manufacturers, the Californian giant added an official statement in which it indeed confirms the work on autonomous systems."
It's written strangely, but in practice it means that all manufacturers have to share all the information they have found out so far :-)
Thanks for the comments, gentlemen. We have clarified and supplemented this part of the text. Apple does not deal with fair conditions here with regard to data sharing, but mainly with regard to testing cars on public roads, etc., to which experienced manufacturers now have better access than new players.
You can find more in the letter on pp. 3-4 https://www.scribd.com/document/333110063/Apple-s-Comments-on-the-Federal-Automated-Vehicles-Policy
j that's even better, just want them to let test AI cars on the road for the "road word" instead of the approval process, which is now :]
in other words, if I start a company and say to myself that I want to make AI cars, so that I can test them without the permission of the road authority, that it will be enough if I set some internal guidelines in the company according to the recommendations...
nice chaos and gambling, I greet you guys :), as long as they stand up well to the approval like their competitors, the roads are not like their macbooks for which they will fuck and no one will die
so if you start the apple plan, don't sell apple coffins... such nice ones, either plastic ones with an apple that will shine, or aluminum ones, such a unibody coffin, wow!