Michal Marek A Dodge Caravan with a special device on the roof has been spotted several times in Concord, California in recent days. Interestingly, the car according to the San Francisco mutation of the CBS news magazine leased by Apple.
It is a mystery what the car is for and what project it is participating in. A special structure with cameras located on the roof could indicate that this is a mapping vehicle that Apple uses to develop its Maps. Information that in Cupertino they want to take their Maps to a higher level and thus better compete with Google or Microsoft has surfaced regularly since their launch. Apple could therefore work on a function similar to Google Street View or Bing StreetSide using the car that was spotted.
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According to the blog Claycord but it is a car strikingly similar to the driverless robotic car seen last September in New York. Even then, it was a Dodge Caravan with a similar exterior. Technology expert Rob Enderle also advocates for the variant of a robotic car without a driver rather than a mapping car, who spoke just for CBS. Enderle refers to the fact that there are too many cameras attached to the structure, which are also aimed at all four lower corners of the car.
AppleInsider however, he noted that Google uses a car with 15 five-megapixel cameras for Street View, which together compose an image of the surroundings. The car used by Apple appears to use similar technology, with 12 cameras that could potentially be used to piece together a Street View-like model of the terrain.
Although Apple is not among the six companies that have permission to test driverless cars, Enderle says that it does not matter and that Apple can work with a manufacturer that allows it to rent and test such a car. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.
If Apple was indeed creating its own version of Street View, it could introduce it this summer as a new feature in iOS 9. For starters, like the Flyover feature in its Maps, we can only expect support for a few cities.
