Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), has for several years a project aimed at developing a autonomous guidance system for cars, and from January until now, the number of cars used in the project has increased by over 50%. If in January Apple had 27 autonomous cars in testing in California, now it has reached 45 cars that guide themselves on the streets of various cities.
In a single year, the number of autonomous cars that Apple uses in tests has increased 15 times, becoming the second largest fleet of such cars in California. Google has 24 cars, Tesla has 39 cars, and General Motors has 110 autonomous cars on California roads through a subsidiary Cruise Automation.
The president of Apple admitted last year that Apple is testing autonomous cars, without providing any other information, but everything could be suspended by those in Cupertino and beyond. Yesterday, an autonomous Uber car killed a woman in Arizona, USA, and the preliminary police investigation established that the American company was not to blame, but nothing has been established.
$ AAPL scooplet: Apple now has 45 cars testing autonomous systems in California, up from 27 in Jan & 3 last April, @CA_DMV figures show. That's more than Waymo, Uber or Tesla in CA, as their testing moves to AZ https://t.co/Eohql6Qq70 pic.twitter.com/5ZdDIIAtxT
— Tim Bradshaw (@tim) March 20, 2018
Yesterday's incident could still put a pause on many programs through which autonomous cars are tested, the authorities being able to get seriously involved in the regulation of the future car testing process. For now, Apple has announced that it is stopping its own project, other companies have done this, so it remains to be seen what will happen in the future and when the real autonomous cars will be launched.
