There has been a great deal of talk over the past few years about which company would be the first to successfully create a car that is capable of driving itself. Google was the first major tech company to attempt this very difficult goal. Their efforts to this point have met with mixed results. However, other companies are now pouring considerable amounts of money into this project. Ford and General Motors have also announced that they are in the very early stages of designing a self-driving car. In fact, Ford forked out $1 billion for a company to design the artificial intelligence software needed to control the car.
The newest entry into the self-driving car competition is Apple. The largest company on the planet has many different projects that it is currently developing. However, Apple CEO Tim Cook has made it very clear that a self-driving car will be one of the tech giant’s main priorities moving forward. Cook did not offer many other specifics when he made his announcement. This should not be surprising. Apple has a reputation for keeping their projects under wraps until shortly before they are ready to be released to the public.
The idea of a car driving itself might have seemed impossible 10 years ago. However, the progress that Google has made shows that they are on the right track. Apple plans to build on what Google has been able to do. Unfortunately, there has been no timetable released regarding when Apple will officially begin their self-driving car project. At this point, Apple has not even revealed how many people will be involved or who will be in charge of it. It seems very unlikely that Apple would make an announcement of this magnitude without being sure of who would be at the helm. They obviously want to keep that piece of info under wraps for a while longer.
The fact that Apple has announced their intentions to develop a self-driving car means that the race to invent this groundbreaking technology is officially on. It goes without saying that this would would be a very lucrative technology to patent if it can be proven to be completely safe for consumers to use. This sort of tech will take many years to develop. However, it is exciting to think that the wealthiest company in the world is now on board and actively trying to create a self-driving car.
Dil Bole Oberoi
