Apple had the opportunity to hide its interest in creating a car autopilot exactly until it had to apply for the admission of prototypes to public roads in California. By the way, informed sources say that Apple secretly tested about six prototypes for about a year, so the decision to legitimize the test clearly indicates changes in the information policy on this issue.
Moreover, the head of Apple Tim Cook (Tim Cook) in an interview with Bloomberg recently publicly admitted that the company "focuses on autonomous driving systems for cars." He called the corresponding technology a key and very important, as well as one of the most complex implementations of artificial intelligence. According to Cook, at the same time there are three important vectors of change: autopilot, electric vehicles and services for calling a taxi or short-term car rental. He does not hide the head of Apple and his sympathies for electric cars. As he admits, the lack of the need to stop at a gas station encourages him. However, as he relates to the need to charge the battery for several hours, Cook did not explain.
He did not give any specific forecasts on the use of autopilot technologies, which Apple can develop in the future.