Doug Field, who previously worked as a vice president of Mac hardware engineering at Apple, has returned to the Cupertino tech giant after a nearly five-year stint at Tesla to work on the company's secretive automotive initiative.
Apple's self-driving car technology could potentially change the way it drives based on the reactions of its passengers, using monitoring sensors to analyze the vehicle's occupants and determine an appropriate driving style to suit the situation, potentially reducing the chance of a passenger panicking.
Apple is continuing to increase the number of autonomous vehicles it has on the roads for testing, reportedly registering more vehicles with the Californian Department of Motor Vehicles to bring the fleet up to 66 self-driving cars operating in the state.
Former Apple employee Xiaolang Zhang, who worked on the company's self-driving car initiative, on Monday entered a plea of not guilty after federal prosecutors indicted the engineer on one count of trade secret theft.
Former hardware engineer, who worked on autonomous cars at Apple, arrested at airport, attempting to board a flight for China with company secrets.
According to a report on Tuesday, popular YouTube personality Mark Rober has been working with Apple's special projects group since 2015 on the development of virtual reality technology for self-driving cars.
The Car Connectivity Consortium, which counts Apple among its charter members, on Wednesday announced the publication of new "digital key" standard that allows drivers to actuate vehicle systems like door locks and the engine via an NFC-enabled smartphone.
The latest addition to Apple's self-driving car team is Jaime Waydo, previously a senior engineer at Alphabet's Waymo as well as NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
After rebuffed attempts to partner with major carmakers over an ambitious electric vehicle project, Apple has reportedly inked a deal with Volkswagen to convert a number of T6 Transporter vans into self-driving shuttles for company employees.
Two months after an autonomous car struck and killed a woman in Arizona, Uber is shuttering its self-driving car program in the state.
Apple now has 55 autonomous test vehicles and 83 authorized drivers, California's Department of Motor Vehicles has confirmed, indicating that work on the company's mysterious car platform is accelerating.
The latest Apple patent applications published by the US Patent and Trademark Office feature a number of filings relating to its self driving car efforts, including gesture recognition for both passengers inside the vehicle and for pedestrians diverting traffic on the road.
Apple is rapidly growing the number of self-driving test vehicles it has in its home state, putting it at second place there behind only General Motors' Cruise subsidiary.
Following the death late Sunday of a woman who was struck and killed by a self-driving Uber car in Arizona, we now know more about the circumstances of the tragedy, which has a chance to shake public trust in autonomous car technology.
Safety driver was behind the wheel of car, which was in self-driving mode, in Arizona tragedy, and the company has now halted all testing of the technology.
Apple's experimentation with autonomous car technology is likely to veer away from creating a simple platform and back towards a fully self-designed vehicle, one analyst argues.
As anticipated, the California Department of Motor Vehicles on Monday received approval from the California Office of Administrative Law to enact a set of regulations that will allow companies to test remotely operated autonomous vehicles on public roads.
If approved, new Californian regulations could allow companies like Apple to test their self-driving platforms with remote backup, instead of putting a human behind the wheel.
Following up on a "Most Innovative Company" award, business magazine Fast Company on Wednesday published a wide-ranging interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook, covering topics like the stock market, long-term plans, and the importance of Apple Music to the bottom line.
The state of California has now permitted Apple to have 27 self-driving cars on its public roads, as the company expands its homegrown automated driving technology, internally known as "Project Titan."
{{ summary }}
Mikey Campbell
Malcolm Owen
Stephen Silver
Roger Fingas
Neil Hughes
