Matti Robinson
8 Jun 2019 11:17
Apple has been rumored to be working on self-driving cars for ages. Many believe it's just a matter of time before Apple reveals their own Tesla killer.
However, it's been years, and nothing has really happened. Except that Apple first bought some AI firms, recruited top Tesla engineers, and more recently restructured over 200 of its employees to other jobs.
Now they are ready to many another move towards their own AI-driven vehicle, as The Information reports that Apple is closing in on buying Drive.ai.
Drive.ai is, as you might guess from the name, a company developing autonomous driving. It was established by students from Stanford and is headquartered near Google in Mountain View, CA.
The hundred strong Drive.ai will likely mostly move to work for Apple after the acquisition, and know-how is what Apple is really after, not current prototypes or patents.
The company was founded in 2015 and secured $12 million in funding in 2016 and $50 million the following year in the second round.
It seems that Apple is still interested in autonomous driving even after reassigning much of its workforce, which is actually what the company assured after announcing the restructuring.