The list of permitted autonomous cars in California has grown to include Apple.
Apple is looking to begin its testing of its self-driving car software platform on the streets. This is a major step for Apple and for technology as a whole as they are one of the biggest players.
The company was granted approval by the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test autonomous driving technology on public roads, according to a notice on the DMV’s website on Friday.
Apple will use there system on existing vehicles. According to Bloomberg News Apple started developing a self-driving car a few years ago but it pulled back and focused on first developing underlying autonomous technology instead.
This is clear evidence that Apple wants to diversify is hold on technology. There is a lot of competition in this growing field and Apple will have to lock horns with some of the giants in the automotive industry.
Apple’s self-driving technology is being developed in secret company offices in Sunnyvale, Calif., a short drive from its main Cupertino campus, Bloomberg News has also reported. The company also has a team in Canada working on a car-operating system that would power the platform, people familiar with the matter have said.
The self-driving car platform is designed such that Apple has the flexibility of  integrating it with existing car makers or working with their own vehicle designs. Only with time will we see if Apple can continue to bring innovations to the world or will other companies lead the charge.
You may view the requirements and application process for manufacturers to obtain DMV’s approval prior to testing autonomous vehicles on California public roads by clicking on the link below:
Autonomous Vehicle Tester Program
As of April 14, 2017, DMV has issued Autonomous Vehicle Testing Permits to the following entities:
(Permit holders are listed by the date the permit was issued)
- Volkswagen Group of America
- Mercedes Benz
- Delphi Automotive
- Tesla Motors
- Bosch
- Nissan
- GM Cruise LLC
- BMW
- Honda
- Ford
- Zoox, Inc.
- Drive.ai, Inc.
- Faraday & Future Inc.
- Baidu USA LLC
- Wheego Electric Cars Inc.
- Valeo North America, Inc.
- NextEV USA, Inc.
- Telenav, Inc.
- NVIDIA Corporation
- AutoX Technologies Inc
- Subaru
- Udacity, Inc
- Navya Inc.
- Renovo Motors Inc
- UATC LLC (Uber)
- PlusAi Inc
- Nuro, Inc
- CarOne LLC
- Apple Inc.
