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Check Out Apple's New Self-Driving Concept Vehicle

For the past few years, rumors have circulated that Apple, Inc.—well known for its Mac personal computers, the iPod, iPad and iPhone— was developing an Apple-branded car. The “Apple Car” or “iCar” would supposedly be an electric vehicle that would rival Tesla.

According to Wall Street Journal, the undertaking was referred to as “Project Titan.” Since 2014, more than 1,000 employees were hired to work on the initiative. Last year, there were reports about hundreds of jobs being cut and much speculation about the project even moving forward.

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Recently, there has been talk about the tech giant focusing on self-driving vehicles. In April, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) granted Apple a permit for up to six drivers to test three self-driving sports utility vehicles (SUVs), all of which are 2015 Lexus 2015 RX450h SUVs. Apple is one of more than 30 entities that was granted a permit from the DMV in June 2017. These include automobile manufacturers such as Audi and Ford; automotive parts companies including Bosch and Delphi; as well as Google with its self-driving program, Waymo.

Soon after receiving the permit, Apple’s vehicles were seen cruising around the San Francisco area with multiple sensors and cameras.

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, has now confirmed what many have suspected. Cook announced on Bloomberg Television in June that Apple is focusing on “autonomous systems.”

“Clearly, one purpose of autonomous systems is focused on self-driving cars. There are others,” said Cook. “We see it as the mother of all AI [artificial intelligence] projects. It’s probably one of the most difficult AI projects actually to work on.”

During the interview, Cook did not share whether Apple would focus on developing its own vehicle at this time.

The only automotive product Apple has released so far is CarPlay, which essentially allows you to use the company’s iOS operating system in your vehicle. CarPlay gives drivers the ability to control text messaging, music and navigation through the touch-screen dashboard, voice commands and steering-wheel buttons.

Although it’s unclear whether Apple will develop an autonomous vehicle or mainly focus its attention on the technology for these vehicles, it is apparent that the notoriously secretive company has a strong interest in this area and that exciting developments are most likely on the horizon.

Sources: MSN, Yahoo and CNN