Project Titan a couple of years ago was Apple’s ambitious plan to build a self-driving car. They hired plenty of veterans in the industry but the entire project never panned out. Now Apple has solely focused on self-driving technology while clearly saying that they are not going into the car making business. In an interview with Bloomberg, Tim Cook mentioned that Apple’s focus is autonomous systems.
In a report by the New York Times, Apple these days are looking at trying to create a self-driving shuttle that will ferry their employees between their current HQ at Infinite Loop to the new spaceship looking campus. No details are available about the shuttle but it will be likely a commercial vehicle. Having a test bed is great because it will allow Apple to test their autonomous system on a vehicle which is constantly required to ferry employees between locations on a daily basis. Employees can also assist by providing feedback and report any bugs or issues.
The codename for the project is called PAIL which stands for Palo Alto to Infinite Loop. No news of when the deployment of these campus shuttle has been revealed yet. Looking at the size of the entire new campus in which Apple is currently building, I am not surprised that they require a campus shuttle to ferry employees around.
According to AppleInsider, it was an internal strife which was what caused the initial grandiose plans of Project Titan to falter. Various groups had different visions for Project Titan which led to it ending prematurely. Still, with new leadership, Apple is now focusing on the technology as well as the support systems for autonomous vehicles.
[Source: AppleInsider & The New York Times]
