Apple plans for expanding into transportation has been confirmed by calling out the United States regulators not to restrict self-driving cars testing. The confirmation came after the tech giant became vocal of its excitement for automated transportation.
The rumors for the past two years that Apple will venture into an automated car has now been confirmed with a letter sent to U.S. highway regulators. The letter contains the tech-giant plans and enthusiasm in entering the transport business as it sees big potential in self-driving cars in the near future.
According to Reuters, Apple's director of product integrity Steve Kenner sent a comprehensive statement to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showing its interest in self-driving car system. "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," Steve Kenner wrote.
Steve Kenner wrote that the regulators should establish equal treatment to the existing manufacturers and new entrants, like Apple, by not imposing too many restrictions. He said that self-driving cars will greatly help prevent accidents and crashes that caused many lives. Also, automated transport vehicle will help those who are not capable of driving with the reason of their disability.
However, since the project is about the self-driving car, Apple said that new entrants and even the existing manufacturer of cars should focus on user's safety, car's mobility, the structural design and privacy of the owner. In line with this, Apple proposes a shared data from crashes and near-misses with the other companies so that the industry will be able to build better design with fewer flaws on its safety of use, BBC reported.
Meanwhile, Apple is not the only one that plans for the self-driving car. Ford plans to release its self-driving car by 2021 while Google is already in testing its car on the road. Also, Tesla recently announced that its latest cars are being built with hardware that allows it to drive on its own. Last November, president-elect Donald Trump was urged by an auto trade group to review the regulations of Obama's guidance on self-driving vehicles.
