Apple’s quest to produce a viable self-driving car remains stalled despite years of work as the team is plagued by setbacks while rivals race ahead, tech news website The Information reported on Monday.
The excitement surrounding a potential Apple car began about eight years ago, when the vehicles were touted as the company’s first new “big thing” since the death of its legendary co-founder, Steve Jobs, in October 2011.
However, self-driving Apple cars have had trouble on roads near the Silicon Valley headquarters, hitting curbs, veering off lanes and nearly colliding with a jogger who was legally crossing a street, The Information said, citing interviews with people who worked on the project.
The article claimed that team issues stemmed from ever-changing goals and leadership, staff turnover, and a lack of confidence in the project from senior Apple executives.
Apple CEO Tim Cook presented self-driving cars as the ideal fit for the tech giant in an interview published by The New York Times earlier last year.
“An autonomous car is a robot, so there are many things you can do with autonomy; we’ll see what Apple does,” Cook said on journalist Kara Swisher’s “Sway” podcast.
Cook hinted that one option for Apple could be to build an autonomous driving technology platform to be used by automakers.
He expressed his admiration for electric car maker Tesla, which is among the companies developing autonomous driving capabilities.
Apple first revealed its autonomous driving tech aspirations in 2016, and Cook has since said that he sees autonomous driving systems as a “core technology” for the future.
Apple acknowledged last year that it had downsized its self-driving car technology team, but emphasized that it’s still in the running.
Most major automakers and many technology groups are currently developing autonomous vehicles, which along with electric propulsion are considered to be the future of the automobile.
Less than a year ago, Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google’s parent company Alphabet, expanded its robotaxi service to passengers in San Francisco, taking another step toward fully autonomous ride-hailing.
The company allows “trusted testers” to commission trips in self-driving cars with an “autonomous specialist” on board as backup.
The move expanded Waymo’s ride-hailing program, which has operated in Phoenix, Arizona, since 2017 as competitors work to launch similar operations.
Waymo is ahead of most of its competitors and has raised billions of dollars in anticipation of a wider rollout.
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