Apple's safety report for 'Project Titan' testing comes in at just 7 pages
Apple on Wednesday released a voluntary safety report for its self-driving car project, significant mainly for how little the company is willing to share.
The document, submitted to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, comes in at a mere seven pages -- dozens less than some of Apple's rivals in the space. Absent are any statistics on the performance of vehicles, or any plans for future tests, much less anything it might launch commercially.
Instead the report promotes Apple's safety, privacy and security practices, and offers a simplified view of equipment, testing and driver requirements.
"The sensing 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 bicyclists," Apple says in one section. "This is accomplished using a combination of sensors, including LiDAR, radar, and cameras, and provides high-resolution 360-degree 3D coverage around the vehicle."
That wording could describe virtually any self-driving car program.
The company does mention "testing at closed-course proving grounds" in addition to its real-world experiments. Rumors have hinted at such work, but the company has kept it a closely-guarded secret.
The ultimate goal of Apple's "Project Titan," if one has solidified, is unknown. The company may be designing a full-fledged vehicle, or could still be focusing solely on a platform to shop to third parties. Recently the team lost over 200 workers, though at least some of them have been reassigned.
Earlier this month the company disclosed that its test vehicles disengage more often than any of its rivals, though perhaps because of intentionally conservative policies.
The document, submitted to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, comes in at a mere seven pages -- dozens less than some of Apple's rivals in the space. Absent are any statistics on the performance of vehicles, or any plans for future tests, much less anything it might launch commercially.
Instead the report promotes Apple's safety, privacy and security practices, and offers a simplified view of equipment, testing and driver requirements.
"The sensing 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 bicyclists," Apple says in one section. "This is accomplished using a combination of sensors, including LiDAR, radar, and cameras, and provides high-resolution 360-degree 3D coverage around the vehicle."
That wording could describe virtually any self-driving car program.
The company does mention "testing at closed-course proving grounds" in addition to its real-world experiments. Rumors have hinted at such work, but the company has kept it a closely-guarded secret.
The ultimate goal of Apple's "Project Titan," if one has solidified, is unknown. The company may be designing a full-fledged vehicle, or could still be focusing solely on a platform to shop to third parties. Recently the team lost over 200 workers, though at least some of them have been reassigned.
Earlier this month the company disclosed that its test vehicles disengage more often than any of its rivals, though perhaps because of intentionally conservative policies.
Comments
Apple is coming across as being waaay behind, especially in AI. It wouldn’t surprise me if Apple purchases other companies to catch up...
I think autos are of strategic importance to Apple... they need to up their game.
Are privacy, safety and security practices so boring that writing about them in some detail isn’t worth the blogger’s time? Let an Apple car get into an accident of any kind and the lack of safety would be written about. Let an Apple car be electronically hijacked and the lack of security would be written about. Let there be a lapse on removing information of people from collected data and the lack privacy would be written about and referenced forever more.
At least I can be happy that AI didn’t write about another analyst saying Apple should buy Tesla. 😉
”Apple in January 2019 culled the Project Titan team and removed over 200 employees. The move is said to be part of a restructuring done under the leadership of Doug Field, but it's not yet clear how this will impact Apple's autonomous vehicle plans.”
This is probably/possibly in response to:
https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/02/12/apples-self-driving-cars-disengage-from-autonomous-mode-about-once-per-mile-worst-performing-platform-in-california
I think it’s safe to say Apple’s efforts haven’t impressed (to date).
Most of my post is a prediction... because the “article” doesn’t have anything worth discussing.
Wrong. Should be, "An analysis of data reported to state of California by companies testing autonomous vehicles shows that Apple reports many more disengagements than any other participants, but this may represent more conservative reporting policies or more conservative testing practices than other companies." We do not know whether Apple actually has more "disengagements" than other companies. We also don't know what this says about the state of Apple's program.
"Recently the team lost over 200 workers, though at least some of them have been reassigned."
I hope they find the missing workers. It's possible that Apple has inadvertently initiated Skynet. That would explain the disappearances.
The public has natural hesitance about the safety of these new vehicles, and this hesitance is one of the largest obstacles to the new category succeeding. Transparency by all future providers of autonomous vehicles is vital to help build public confidence in trusting your health and safety to a car with no driver.