Apple Self-Driving Cars in the Works, Tech Giants Discussing With Suppliers for Lidar Sensors

Sieeka Khan, Tech Times 21 February 2021, 02:02 pm

Tech company Apple is currently in discussions with different suppliers of self-driving car sensors known as Lidar. This information is leaked by those who are familiar with the matter. It is a massive step forward towards the development of Apple's first ever passenger vehicle.

Apple's self-driving car

The Cupertino-based technology giant is in talks with different suppliers for the laser-based sensors that will allow a vehicle computer to see its surroundings, according to Los Angeles Times.

The tech company has been working on driverless car project for years and has recently developed on its own the most of the much-needed software, underlying processors and artificial intelligence algorithms that are needed for this kind of sophisticated car system.

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Just like what is done with the iPhone, Apple is now looking to third party vendors to supply the much-needed hardware for a planned autonomous vehicle.

The ongoing discussions are a sign that Apple has yet to settle on a preferred supplier for Lidar and that could be mulling various options, including a customized version of the sensors, as it moves toward developing a car design. That is an indication that a finished product will take years to be complete.

At least six Lidar companies have gone public through reverse merger in the past couple of months, raising millions of dollars by getting on the appetite of investors for a bet on future demand for high-tech cars.

The laser sensor technology is used by many top-tier players who are hoping to commercialize driverless cars, including Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo unit and General Motors Co.'s Cruise division.

On the report of Bloomberg, the shares of Lidar makers increased. Luminar Technologies Inc. increased as much as 8.9% to $35.75, changing its previous declines. Velodyne Lidar Inc. increased 4.7% to $21.89. Apple shares increased 0.8% to $130.71.

Apple manager Benjamin Lyon, who oversaw work on self-driving car hardware, left Apple this week to focus on his space and satellite startup. It is not clear yet what impact that may have on the progress of Apple on delivering a viable car.

Off-the-Shelf

Apple has been testing its robotaxi technology on public roads since 2017 in California. The first version of the test cars, modified Lexus SUVs, used a Lidar stack made up of off-the-shelf parts, though this has become a bespoke effort, according to Yahoo News.

Apple explained in a white paper that was issued back in 2019 that its sensory perception technology will work a certain way. It stated that sensing component is able to know where the car is located in the world and it can identify and track surrounding objects like cars, pedestrians and bicyclists.

Apple said that the time that this is accomplished using a combination of sensors including radar, lidar and cameras, and that it gives high-resolution 360-degree 3D coverage around the car.

In 2019, Reuters reported that Apple was talking to lidar makers, but the car project was fully rebooted afterward. Apple is now in discussions after next-generation lidar that will be considered four to five years from now, which is another indicator of Apple's timeline.