(Bloomberg) – Apple Inc. is in talks with several autonomous automotive sensor vendors known to handle, according to people familiar with the matter, an important milestone in the development of its first passenger vehicle.
The Cupertino, Calif.-Based technology giant is in active negotiations with several potential suppliers for these laser-based sensors that allow a car’s computer to “see” its surroundings, people said, who asked not to be identified. due to the nature of the discussions. The company has been working on a driverless vehicle design for several years and has developed on its own most of the necessary software, underlying processors and artificial intelligence algorithms needed for such a sophisticated system.
As with the iPhone, Apple is looking for outside vendors to provide essential hardware for a planned autonomous vehicle, people said. The ongoing discussions are a sign that Apple has not yet chosen a preferred supplier to deal with and that it is probably evaluating a variety of options, including a highly customized version of the sensors, as it progresses in developing a car design. This is an indication that a finished product is still several years away.
An Apple spokesman declined to comment.
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At least half a dozen deal companies have gone public through a reverse merger in recent months – raising hundreds of millions of dollars by taking advantage of investors’ appetites for a bet on future demand for high-tech cars. Laser sensor technology is used by many top players in the hope of marketing driverless vehicles, including the Waymo unit of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. and the cruise division of General Motors Co.
Shares of deal makers jumped in the Bloomberg report. Luminar Technologies Inc. was up 8.9% to $ 35.75, reversing previous declines. Velodyne Lidar Inc. rose 4.7% to $ 21.89. Apple shares rose 0.8% to $ 130.71 at 11:03 am New York time.
Benjamin Lyon, an important manager at Apple who oversaw work on autonomous car hardware, left the company earlier this week for a space and satellite startup. It is unclear what impact this could have on Apple’s progress in delivering a commercially viable car.
Off the shelf
Apple has been testing its robotaxi technology on public roads in California since 2017. The first version of its test cars, modified Lexus SUVs, used a LIDAR stack made up of ready-to-use parts, although this has recently become a more personalized effort.
The company explained in a white paper published in 2019 how its sensory perception technology should work. “The detection component is able to determine where the vehicle is located in the world and can identify and track surrounding objects, such as other vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists,” said Apple at the time. “This is done using a combination of sensors, including handle, radar and cameras, and provides high-resolution 360-degree 3D coverage around the vehicle.”
Reuters reported in 2019 that Apple was talking to manufacturers to deal with, but the autonomous vehicle design was fully restarted after that. Apple is now in discussions to deal with the next generation, which will be considered next generation in four to five years – another indicator of the company’s timeline, said people familiar with the discussions.
Cars are not Apple’s only foray to deal: the company launched an iPad Pro integrated with laser sensor technology last March and expanded the feature to the iPhone 12 Pro line last fall. The technology enhances low light photography and augmented reality applications on consumer devices; using it to detect driving conditions and obstacles on the road is a more complicated feat.
Five-year timeline
The iPhone maker has a team of experts in interiors, bodywork, transmission systems and batteries working to launch a car. Within the company, the team believes that this launch is at least five years old, Bloomberg News reported.
Apple’s autonomous car system has improved from a few years ago, but is still behind the competition. Last year, Apple’s test cars drove more than 18,800 miles in California with a human driver having to take control every 145 miles. This compares to Waymo, who drove 628,839 miles and needed a human driver to take every 30,000 miles or more, and Cruise, who drove 770,000 miles in total with a trip every 28,520 miles.
Even as Apple searches for suppliers, it is also in talks about potential manufacturing and other outsourcing partnership agreements with several different automakers. She discussed auto manufacturing options with the sister companies of the Hyundai group Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp., but those discussions were interrupted several weeks ago. The two automakers said recently that they are not in talks with Apple.
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