Apple’s Driverless Car Tech Is Ancient Compared To Other Companies

While Apple may be one of the best smartphone makers in the business, when it comes to autonomous driving technology, it seems the company is lagging behind by a considerable margin. According to new reports, the iPhone maker is about three years behind Google, which is not a good position to be in. This is likely a huge factor to Apple scaling back its ambitions regarding driverless cars.

According to sources who have actually seen the project, it would seem that Apple is really behind on the technology aspect of autonomous driving, Business Insider reports. For a tech company, this is a deadly proposition, especially given that the company would be competing with Google. The search engine giant practically pushed the current driverless technology race, after all.

What’s more, there are many other companies vying for the title of driverless king, with big car makers such as GM and Tesla throwing their names in the game. In comparison, Apple has been officially competing for a little over a year, two at most.

The reports regarding how Apple is developing its technology is troubling as well. Apparently, the company has been using commuter car arrangements involving its own employees being ferried everywhere to test its driverless car technology. This is minuscule compared to the millions of miles of data already amassed by either Google or Tesla.

Speaking to The New York Times, personnel who opted to remain anonymous have also been talking about significant downgrades in how the company is approach autonomous driving. Specifically, they revealed that Apple has now set its sights significantly lower, clearly staying away from any idea of building cars.

What really makes the autonomous ambitions of Apple startling is how much of a departure it is from how the firm usually conducts business. From the get-go, it was an all-in affair, with the company investing considerable amounts of time, money, and manpower in the project since 2014.