Apple Inc. Hints At Its Next Disruptive Product
Apple Inc. Acknowledges Its Autonomous Car Efforts In Letter To US Regulator
- Apple provided comments on the proposed Federal Automated Vehicles Policy paper on self-driving cars.
- The US administration is persuaded that the rise of self-driving cars is inevitable, and is mostly concerned with social impact and safety.
- Apple intends to leverage AI to ensure road safety and seems to have initial road testing in mind.
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"Project Titan," the stealth car project of Apple Inc. (Nasdaq:AAPL), is often rumored and speculated as the "iCar," the "next iPhone," and a major driver for Apple stock in the next decade. Apple is known for keeping the project under close wraps, but sometimes the company has to reveal preliminary bits of information.
Apple provided comments on the proposed Federal Automated Vehicles Policy paper, published by the Department of Transportation (DoT) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to formally seek public comment. Apple's commentary, signed by Director of Product Integrity Steve Kenner, emphasizes the importance to ensure the safety and public acceptance of automated vehicles while providing a flexible path for innovation.
"Apple commends the Department of Transportation and NHTSA for facilitating a national conversation about the safe and ethical development and deployment of automated vehicles," says Kenner. "Apple looks forward to collaborating with NHTSA and other stakeholders so that the significant societal benefits of automated vehicles can be realized safely, responsibly, and expeditiously." (See also: Should Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA) Worry As Apple Inc (AAPL) Beefs Up Project Titan?)
In 2015 Amigobulls reported credible rumors that the Apple Car was ready for road testing at GoMentum Station, a former naval base in California, now a high-security testing ground for autonomous vehicles, and on track for shipping to consumers as early as 2019. In April Amigobulls reported about Apple developing the iCar in a research and development lab in Berlin.
The car, manufactured in Austria by Magna Steyr, a brand-independent automotive engineering and manufacturing contractor, would be all-electric like current Tesla Motors (Nasdaq:TSLA) models. While the iCar wouldn't be an autonomous self-driving vehicle at launch, future versions would be fully autonomous. In August, Apple picked senior exec Bob Mansfield, who previously led hardware engineering for best-selling Apple products, for running the iCar project.
"The self-driving car raises more possibilities and more questions than perhaps any other transportation innovation under present discussion," states the Policy paper. "That is as it should be. Possessing the potential to uproot personal mobility as we know it, to make it safer and even more ubiquitous than conventional automobiles and perhaps even more efficient, self-driving cars have become the archetype of our future transportation."
In fact, the DoT and NHTSA are persuaded that fully automated vehicles will be commercially deployed on the road in a few years. The administration acknowledges that the rise of new technology is inevitable, and is mostly concerned with the impact of the upcoming self-driving cars on society. Of course, safety is a key concern, but the administration is persuaded that Highly Automated Driving (HAV) can actually improve road safety and save a lot of lives. (See also: Apple Stock: What's Next For Apple Inc. (AAPL) After It Scales Down Project Titan?)
"The development of advanced automated vehicle safety technologies, including fully self-driving cars, may prove to be the greatest personal transportation revolution since the popularization of the personal automobile nearly a century ago," states the Policy paper, praising "the potential for HAV systems to use other complementary sensor technologies such as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to-infrastructure (V2I) capabilities to improve system performance. These sensor technologies have their own potential to reduce the number and severity of crashes, and the inclusion of V2V and V2I capabilities could augment the safety and performance of HAV systems."
While being optimistic about the long-term safety features of self-driving cars, the US administration won't compromise on safety in the short term. "[We] have to get it right,” wrote President Obama himself in an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "“If a self-driving car isn’t safe, we have the authority to pull it off the road. "We won’t hesitate to protect the American public’s safety."
Apple intends to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to ensure the same - or better - safety standards of expert human drivers. "Apple uses machine learning to make its products and services smarter, more intuitive, and more personal," says Kenner. "The company 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."
"Executed properly under NHTSA’s guidance, automated vehicles have the potential to greatly enhance the human experience—to prevent millions of car crashes and thousands of fatalities each year and to give mobility to those without," says Kenner, adding that, while developing and deploying automated vehicles should follow rigorous safety principles in design and production, regulations should be open and flexible enough to allow innovation and preliminary road testing to happen.
This is perhaps the most significant part of Apple's comment because it seems to indicate that the company does have plans to start testing self-driving iCars soon. It seems very likely that, when the iCar hits the roads, it could win an instant captive market of Apple enthusiasts and command the same passionate brand loyalty of Apple's computers and phones. Therefore, Apple's interest in developing federal policies for self-driving cars seems good news for Apple investors.
Disclosure: Neither Amigobulls, nor any members of its staff hold positions in any of the stocks discussed in this post. The author may not be a ...
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