Apple is “excited” about the potential of self-driving cars

Conflicting rumors of Apple's connected car plans have been swirling for some time. But a new letter written by Apple's director of product integrity Steve Kenner to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) sheds some light into the company's plans. In the letter, Kenner writes that Apple is "excited" about the potential of automated transportation and that the company is "investing heavily" into machine learning that could support such systems.

"Apple uses machine learning to make its products and services smarter, more intuitive, and more personal," Kenner states in the letter. "The company is investing heavily in the study of machine learning and automation, and is excited about the potential of automated systems in many areas, including transportation."

Apple states that companies making self-driving vehicles and connected cars should follow "rigorous safety principles," however those rules shouldn't prevent companies from making "consequential progress." Also, the letter emphasizes the necessity of sharing "crash and near-misses" data to improve this technology, but that shouldn't compromise user privacy.

"By sharing data, the industry will build a more comprehensive dataset than any one company could create alone," the letter states. "This will allow everyone in the industry to design systems to better detect and respond to the broadest set of nominal and edge-case scenarios.... Data sharing should not come at the cost of privacy. Apple believes that companies should invest the resources necessary to protect individuals’ fundamental right to privacy."

Toward the end of the letter, Apple makes a point to say that "established manufacturers" and "new entrants" should be treated equally "to maximize the safety benefits of automated vehicles, encourage innovation, and promote fair competition." Otherwise, newcomers may be at a disadvantage, since they would have to apply for regulatory exemptions. This comes as big car manufacturers like Ford reveal plans to develop self-driving vehicles in the coming years.

The letter does not, however, detail anything about Apple's "Project Titan" or any actual vehicle Apple might be working on. Details about Project Titan have been scarce at best, but rumors of Apple's automated car efforts have been mixed. Last year, Apple reportedly had a few hundred people working on the project, but The New York Times recently reported that Apple shut down numerous parts of the project and laid off dozens of employees.

The letter doesn't really shed light on specific plans, but it does reveal the nature of Apple's support for automated car technology. While it's uncertain if we'll ever see an Apple-branded car on the road, it is certain that Apple wants to develop self-driving car technology and advance that part of the automotive industry.