For the first time Apple has publicly hinted at its ambition to enter the car market, roughly two years after the company was first rumoured to have embarked on a secretive electric car division dubbed Project Titan.
Despite the project being shrouded in secrecy, much has been made about the Californian-based company looking to compete with the likes of Tesla and Google by entering the autonomous car market.
In a statement to the US highways regulator, Apple all but confirmed it is working on technology for self driving cars.
“Apple uses machine learning to make its products and services smarter, more intuitive, and more personal,” Apple’s director of product integrity Steve Kenner wrote the regulator.
“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.”
The five-page letter also declared there was “significant societal benefits of automated vehicles” to be realised.
Apple wants to be involved in shaping the best practice for the industry and is urging the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) not to introduce too many rules on the testing of self-driving cars.
In a strong indication of Apple’s intentions, Mr Kenner wrote that “established manufacturers and new entrants should be treated equally” by regulators.
Apple also called on manufacturers to share data from crashes and near misses to enable a broader picture of safety issues and inform the development of better systems across the industry.
The letter comes in the wake of a number of reports claiming Apple was experiencing difficulty with Project Titan.
In October Bloomberg reported Apple had laid off roughly 1000 employees who were working on Apple’s car technology.
Citing anonymous sources close to the project, the report claimed the company has “drastically scaled back” its ambition to compete in the area and had abandoned its plan to build its own electronic self-driving car.
Instead the company has reportedly refocused its efforts on developing an autonomous driving software system. By focusing on the algorithms rather than hardware the company could potentially allow itself greater freedom in the endeavour and could team up with an experienced car manufacturer to collaborate on the project.
A month earlier, it was reported by the Financial Times that Apple had been in secret talks with luxury carmaker McLaren, however both companies played down the reports of any meetings between the two companies.
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