Apple grows operations in Lund, Sweden for work on 'advanced mapping technology'
Apple is reportedly expanding its operations in Lund, Sweden, where the company is now believed to be working on "advanced mapping technology" for unknown projects.
Hiring for the Lund facility has been increasing in recent months, according to Rapidus, as quoted by Tech.eu. The office's existence has been known since November, but its purpose has been unclear beyond research and development.
Sweden was the home of C3 Technologies, a firm specializing in 3D mapping that Apple bought in October 2011. The acquisition helped pave the way for Apple Maps in 2012, particularly the Flyover feature for certain cities and landmarks. Apple has also picked up other Swedish firms such as AlgoTrim and Polar Rose, but neither of those were connected to mapping.
The Lund R&D work is presumably concentrated on a new incarnation of Apple Maps, particularly in light of Apple vans driving around cities worldwide in a bid to collect more street-level data. The company could conceivably be working on an equivalent to Street View, which was stripped from the iOS Maps app when Apple abandoned Google content.
Apple is however believed to be working on an electric, possibly self-driving car. Such a product would require more advanced mapping systems than Apple currently has, as well as new user-facing navigation interfaces.
Hiring for the Lund facility has been increasing in recent months, according to Rapidus, as quoted by Tech.eu. The office's existence has been known since November, but its purpose has been unclear beyond research and development.
Sweden was the home of C3 Technologies, a firm specializing in 3D mapping that Apple bought in October 2011. The acquisition helped pave the way for Apple Maps in 2012, particularly the Flyover feature for certain cities and landmarks. Apple has also picked up other Swedish firms such as AlgoTrim and Polar Rose, but neither of those were connected to mapping.
The Lund R&D work is presumably concentrated on a new incarnation of Apple Maps, particularly in light of Apple vans driving around cities worldwide in a bid to collect more street-level data. The company could conceivably be working on an equivalent to Street View, which was stripped from the iOS Maps app when Apple abandoned Google content.
Apple is however believed to be working on an electric, possibly self-driving car. Such a product would require more advanced mapping systems than Apple currently has, as well as new user-facing navigation interfaces.
Comments
Good for Lund. (Sony) Ericsson used to have a big office there. Thanks to the changing mobile market, it's now a small office.
We can dream...
Grand Convergence of 3 apple rumors:
1. Car
2. Map Overhaul
3. Augmented Reality
Sit in self-driving Apple Car, navigate via integrated Apple Maps, and enjoy the ride by looking out the windshield to see AR-annotations of the real-world items that pass outside by your windshield. (And of course entertaining yourself with the built-in AppleTV and Apple Music.)
"Coming to a showroom near you in 2020!"
I bet they are working on having a 3D street view feature. Just like fly over but one could fly between skyscrapers
It's going to be pretty sweet
I would hope that any car being developed from scratch at this point is 100% autonomous (self-driving). I can't see Apple building a car that a panicked human can wrest control of and kill someone. Having written control SW for aircraft, I am very willing to put my life in the hands of an autopilot. In fact if you look at the last dozen large airliner accidents, I believe 11 are directly related to ... to ... wait for it... Human Error!
Of course my brother, A pilot, would disagree with me... We _need_ humans in the cockpit blah blah blah... BS! Humans inadvertently, or not! crash planes!
As a father of three teenage drivers I can't wait for fully autonomous cars!
Trivia: There is a fun video were Steve Jobs visited Lund, and you can almost see two of swedens Apple Store's in this map.