Amidst several rumors of entering the automotive market soon, little is officially known of Apple’s true intentions . First, the possible partnership with Hyundai /Kia ended up not happening. Now, the intention to create a car follows, but not under any circumstances. This was revealed by the company’s CEO, Tim Cook , in an interview with a podcast by The New York Times. According to him, if Apple really makes a car, the focus of the model will be on autonomy and driver assistance , instead of being just another car for the public to buy.
“We love to integrate hardware, software and services, and find their intersection points. We think that’s where the magic happens,” Cook explained. “And that’s what we love to do. And we love having the primary technology that surrounds it.” “Autonomy itself is a core technology, in my opinion. If you kind of step back, the car, in many ways, is a robot. An autonomous car is a robot. So there are many things you can do independently. And we’ll see what Apple does.” In this way, it is clearly seen that technological advances are important for the electronics giant in its arrival in the automotive market. The full range, level 5, is still far from reaching the market, which could possibly significantly delay the launch of the vehicle. That’s why Cook said he doesn’t work to a deadline. “We investigate a lot of things internally,” he said. “Many things never see the light of day. But I’m not saying they’ll never see.”
Controversy with Elon Musk
Finally, Cook didn’t want to get into the controversy surrounding Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
According to Musk, Apple declined to meet with him to discuss a possible acquisition of Tesla in what he called “the darkest days” of the Model 3 . “You know, I never spoke to Elon, although I have great admiration and respect for the company he built. I think Tesla has done a job of not just establishing the lead, but maintaining the lead for a long period of time in the electric vehicle space. Therefore, I have great appreciation for them.”
Source: Uol
Waymo Simulates Accidents to Test Autonomous Car
The Waymo , the Alphabet subsidiary that develops vehicles capable of autonomous direction , used actual strikes that took place in Arizona to show the safety of their robots. The company staged several fatal accidents that occurred over the ten-year period between 2008 and 2017.
What the company saw was the reduction of deaths to zero. The data was released this Monday (8), on the Waymo blog . In simulations in which more than one vehicle was involved in the accident, the cars used by the company were called “initiator”, who caused the collision, and “responder”, who needed to swerve.
72 accidents were simulated that happened near Phoenix, Arizona’s capital and largest city. As they were split between “initiator” and “responder”, the total number of tests rose to 91. Twenty of the accidents involved pedestrians and cyclists. In 52 trials, the Waymo car acted as the cause of the collision.
When the robot-driven car was the initiator, 100% of accidents were avoided, even those with pedestrians and cyclists involved. The autonomous platform responded quite satisfactorily. Cars don’t collide.
Trent Victor, director of safety research and best practices, said the reason is simple: robots don’t drive drunk or sleepy, and they follow traffic laws. Instead of those who needed to respond to the situation, the cars managed to deviate and, when it wasn’t enough, reduce the severity of the accident.
The publication still brings an alarming fact. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1.3 million people die annually in car accidents worldwide. To highlight the efficiency of autonomous vehicles, Waymo also recalled that 94% of collisions happen due to human error.
“The safety of autonomous driving technology is the result of careful development and continuous evaluation and refinement. This study is another useful demonstration of the potential for security,” adds Trent Victor.