Apple is on the verge of building a self-driving car. This was made known not by Apple directly but by a document which The Guardian obtained under a public records act request made by an Apple Engineer, Frank Fearon which said, “We would … like to get an understanding of timing and availability for the space, and how we would need to coordinate around other parties who would be using [it]”.
The car in question is under construction in Silicon Valley but the company is scouting for locations in San Francisco Bay where the project can be tested. As at May, engineers from Apple’s secretive Special Project group met with officials from GoMentum Station, a 2,100-acre former naval base near San Francisco that is being turned into a high-security testing ground for autonomous vehicles. Mercedes-Benz and Honda have already carried out experiments with self-driving cars behind its barbed-wire fences.
The move by Apple to make a self driving car comes as Google, Uber and other tech companies are pouring cash into robot cars. Apple chief executive Tim Cook has held a series of meetings with car executives in recent months and the company has poached automotive experts from established players, including the head of Mercedes Benz’s Silicon Valley research arm, Fiat-Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne and may have toured BMW’s i3 electric car assembly line in Germany last year. The company has also been recruiting automotive experts from Silicon Valley, Tesla Motors and Mercedes-Benz, as well as power experts from electric car battery maker A123 Systems.
The idea of a self-driving car is quite exciting though if only it will come to Nigeria. This will mean that the advert which says that someday, cars will run on water is almost coming true in this part of the world.