Internal documents reveal first look at Apple's self-driving car platform

Documents filed as part of Apple's application to test self-driving cars in California were revealed on Friday and offer a first look at the company's autonomous platform, dubbed the "Automated System."

Obtained by Business Insider, the "Development Platform Specific Training" documents contain material designed to train potential safety drivers before they take Apple's autonomous vehicles out on public roads. Drivers must pass basic tests ranging from basic maneuvering to vehicle systems intervention prior to certification, the report says.

Pilots are expected to pass seven rudimentary tests prior to taking the testbed out for data gathering drives. Seen below, tests include maneuvering skills like low speed and high speed driving, as well as drive system intervention, which covers tight U-turns, sudden steering input, sudden acceleration and sudden braking. Drivers also need to take action in the case of a "conflicting turn signal and action," which refers to faulty lane change requests.

According to one document, when the vehicle is not being controlled by self-driving software, drivers can — literally — take wheel electronically via drive-by-wire technology. An accompanying photo of the cockpit shows a Logitech steering wheel and pedal system jerry-rigged to fit in front of what is presumably a Lexus RX450h's drive controls.

Apple last week was awarded a permit by the California DMV to conduct self-driving car tests on public roads. The granted permit covers three Lexus RX450h SUVs and six safety pilots who, according to today's report, are mostly Ph.Ds with specialization in machine learning. A few of the drivers named in the DMV document previously worked for automotive companies like Bosch and Tesla.

In a document detailing the correct method of performing a tight U-turn, Apple notes pilots can disengage the autonomous driving system by pressing the brake pedal or grabbing the steering wheel. Suitable drivers should also be able to accelerate without overriding the system.

Apple has long been rumored to be working on autonomous vehicle technology under its "Project Titan" initiative. The company reportedly abandoned efforts to create a branded car in late 2016 when former project leader Steve Zadesky left Apple and handed the reins over to senior VP of Hardware Engineering Dan Riccio.

Project Titan was later transferred to longtime executive Bob Mansfield, who subsequently culled hundreds of employees and refocused the program on self-driving software and supporting hardware.

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37 Comments

tallest skil

said about 6 years ago

I can see it being called Apple Drive and being activated by saying, "Engage." They could even do a Star Trek tie in.

And wind up killing hundreds of fiancées as they phone their friends about their engagements…

ireland

said about 6 years ago

The company reportedly abandoned efforts to create a branded car in late 2016,
I've never believed this for a minute. Apple doesn't make a self-driving car platform without making a car. They are doing both concurrently. Einstein used to say that he wouldn't believe a theory that was claimed to be true unless there was a logical reason for it to be the case. There's no logic in Apple, of all companies focusing on a self-drive car platform without an own branded car to go with it. And you don't perfect one while waiting to begin work on the other. It's a leak to buy them time in the eyes of outsiders. Just as how they call a meeting with a few select darlings to inform them they are beginning work on a new Mac Pro—to me, it means they decided on the new design a year ago and have by now ironed out most of the kinks. Nothing much else makes a lot of sense.

A car of the future without this optionally engaged feature is dead in the water. And you don't perfect one without the other. For Apple, one would require just as much work as the other, and both are paramount for selling a vehicle—which they very obviously are aiming to do given the thousand-strong hires in this direction and the rumour of a few dozen fires, which probably means shuffles.

maestro64

said about 6 years ago

ireland said:

The company reportedly abandoned efforts to create a branded car in late 2016,
I've never believed this for a minute. Apple doesn't make a self-driving car platform without making a car. It's very simple. They are doing both concurrently. A car of the future without this optionally engaged feature is dead in the water. And you don't perfect one without the other. For Apple, one would require just as much work as the other, and both are paramount for selling a vehicle—which they very obviously are aiming to do.

You know with so many cars moving to drive by wire and many of them using standard components from a number of manufactures, Apple could just develop the system they does the driving without the need to do the car itself. In this case the can partner with the companies who make the drive and control systems and just bolt on the solution into any car. Imagine it being like a radio that you plug in and it take control of the car. It is a different way of looking at the problem. The big issue for self driving car is becoming the insurance issue, who have to carry the insurance, the owner for the system or the manufacture. Do not think for moment these cars will not get in accident , as long as human are driving along side a self driving car you will have accidents. The challenge will be who is assigned the blame.

holyone

said about 6 years ago

ireland said:

The company reportedly abandoned efforts to create a branded car in late 2016,
I've never believed this for a minute. Apple doesn't make a self-driving car platform without making a car. It's very simple. They are doing both concurrently. A car of the future without this optionally engaged feature is dead in the water. And you don't perfect one without the other. For Apple, one would require just as much work as they other and both are crucial to selling a vehicle—which they very obviously are aiming to do.

(That is, the end-point is to have no interface at all. In a fully-autonomous, 'Level 5' car, with no steering wheel or manual controls at all, the only human-computer interface is when you say "take me home now". But most people in the autonomous driving field think that's at least 5 years away and more probably 10, or more. In the mean time we have a transitional phase, as you go from lots of warnings to one and you ask what fundamentally that warning should be, and as you sit in a car where you need to be in the driving seat and steering, mostly, or ready to steer, but the car might stop you, or drive itself. Something that drives itself until it doesn't can easily become dangerous. So, my struggle to turn off the HUD on my borrowed car might become something rather more urgent. This could, incidentally, be the best car opportunity for Apple. A car that you just tell to go home and forget about is Google's sweet spot, without much scope for Apple to add any unique insight as to how the experience should work. Conversely, a car that you still need to drive, somehow, but in radically new ways, seems like a fruitful place for thinking about how interfaces work, and that's Apple.) Benedict Evans - Cars as feature-phones Worth a read

ireland

said about 6 years ago

maestro64 said:

ireland said:

The company reportedly abandoned efforts to create a branded car in late 2016,
I've never believed this for a minute. Apple doesn't make a self-driving car platform without making a car. It's very simple. They are doing both concurrently. A car of the future without this optionally engaged feature is dead in the water. And you don't perfect one without the other. For Apple, one would require just as much work as the other, and both are paramount for selling a vehicle—which they very obviously are aiming to do.

You know with so many cars moving to drive by wire and many of them using standard components from a number of manufactures, Apple could just develop the system they does the driving without the need to do the car itself. In this case the can partner with the companies who make the drive and control systems and just bolt on the solution into any car. Imagine it being like a radio that you plug in and it take control of the car. It is a different way of looking at the problem. The big issue for self driving car is becoming the insurance issue, who have to carry the insurance, the owner for the system or the manufacture. Do not think for moment these cars will not get in accident , as long as human are driving along side a self driving car you will have accidents. The challenge will be who is assigned the blame.

Apple. Apple. Apple.

You're talking about Dell or some shit.