Partner of Apple 's automated driving car project has settled down on Volkswagen

Apple continuing to develop automatic driving cars was looking for partners around existing major automobile manufacturers. Although negotiations with BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, etc. were not completed, Apple's partner choice, the New York Times reports that Volkswagen is decided.

Apple, Spurned by Others, Signs Deal With Volkswagen for Driverless Cars - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/technology/apple-bmw-mercedes-volkswagen-driverless-cars.html

Apple's automotive development project "Titan" was born in 2014. Apple's car development project, which was an open secret, finallyTim Cook acknowledgesBy becoming a public presence, as of May, 2018, Apple is running a test run of 55 automatic driving cars in California.TechcrunchAccording to Apple, it is the second largest after GM and the test run of an automated driving car is going on in California.


Apple is promoting the Titan project with the theme of "rebuilding a car" by gathering software programmers, automotive technicians, rocket developers, designers, and initially trying to independently develop an automated driving car without a driver sitting opposite to each other There was. Although Apple is a proven track record computer and mobile terminal, the experience of car development is zero. Members of Titan understood from the development that it is difficult to design a car from the moment immediately.

Therefore, Apple said that he began looking for a partner company that manufactures cars designed by them. According to someone familiar with Apple 's Titan project, it was BMW that Apple thought that Apple' s "high - end model" in mind is the closest thing of brand thought to Apple. In addition, CEO of Cook, BMW owner in many companies inside Apple, CEO himself visited BMW himself seems to have negotiated joint development of cars. Although negotiations lasted for several years, after all, both negotiations broke because both Apple and BMW stuck to their own holding of "sharing experiences with customers".


Apple's former employee said that Apple's other partner candidate was Mercedes-Benz. It seems that a partnership project with Mercedes · Benz was being codenamed "Bruce" internally. Although it was a tie-up negotiation that lasted more than a year, the opinions of both companies did not match in the manner of user experience and handling of traveling data, and in the end negotiations with Mercedes-Benz also broke down.

In an interview with the Titan officials of the New York Times, Nissan, China's BYD Auto, McLaren and others are confirmed in addition to BMW and Mercedes-Benz, the partner that Apple negotiated as a partner candidate. Apple is conducting automatic driving tests mainly on the modified Lexus SUV, but he seems to have never partnered officially with Lexus.

It was Apple that did not have a tie-up negotiations with automakers around the world, but it finally got officially affiliated with Volkswagen in Germany, the New York Times reported. The partnership was decided at the end of 2017, and the problem of exhaust gas fraud in diesel vehicles "Diesel gate"Volkswagen, which was behind the rival in the development competition of automatic driving cars, jumped to Apple's alliance offer, says Apple's former employees have revealed the history of the alliance.


The Volkswagen Transporter (T6) will be transformed into an electric shuttle at the laboratory of Italdesign, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, and it is expected that it will be adopted as a shuttle that delivers Apple employees between two campuses. Information from two people familiar with Titan, "T6 frame, chassis, and wheels remain as it is, but components inside the car such as dashboards and seats will be changed by Apple" has been issued. It is unknown whether the partnership between Apple and Volkswagen will spread beyond shuttle development to the development of automatic driving cars.

·bonus
A new design model has been confirmed in Sunnyvale, California as a test driving vehicle of an automated driving car developed by Apple.

Here's a new look at Apple's self-driving car (video) | TechRadar
https://www.techradar.com/news/heres-a-new-look-at-apples-self-driving-car

According to TechRadar who witnessed a new type of Apple development vehicle, Lidar and the camera system were exposed unlike the development vehicles so far. In addition, it has been confirmed that the number of Lidar mounted on the roof has been reduced from six to three in the past.