Apple’s self-driving cars ‘smacked into curbs, veered out of lanes’: report
Apple’s self-driving cars had trouble navigating streets, frequently bumped into curbs and veered out of lanes in the middle of intersections during test drives near the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters, according to a report.
Apple has been trying to work out the kinks in Project Titan, its autonomous electric vehicle program, since it sent several of the self-driving cars on a test run along a 40-mile stretch from Bozeman, Mont., to the nearby Big Sky ski resort last August, according to The Information.
The test drive was a seeming success, as the prototypes managed to make the journey without needing the aid of three-dimensional road maps that are typically used by other firms that are developing self-driving fleets.
The demonstration was even filmed using aerial drones. The images and footage were then used to make a flashy promotional video to impress top Apple executives, including CEO Tim Cook, according to the report.
But engineers at the iPhone maker were dismayed when the test vehicles struggled to conduct basic navigation maneuvers on city streets near the company’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters.
According to The Information, the cars slammed into curbs and often had trouble staying in their lanes after crossing intersections.
A source told The Information that a local jogger was nearly hit by one of Project Titan’s cars as the runner was crossing the street. The car apparently did not recognize that the jogger had the right of way.
The mishaps are part and parcel of an eight-year program that has been plagued by a revolving door of departing executives as well as persistent software problems, according to The Information.
Ian Goodfellow, a renowned scientist who headed the machine-learning division within Project Titan, left the company, the report stated.
Apple’s self-driving car would differ from those being developed by rivals such as Google-backed Waymo and General Motors’ Cruise since it would have no steering wheel and pedals, with interiors designed around hands-off driving.
Tesla, the leading electric car maker whose vehicles include semi-autonomous technology such as autopilot, “full self-driving,” and traffic-aware cruise control features, is under investigation by the federal government after drivers got into more than 200 crashes using assistance software.
Last week, federal investigators were dispatched to Florida where a fatal collision involving a Tesla claimed the lives of two people.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which oversees motor vehicle transportation safety, would not say whether the drivers involved were using any of the semi-autonomous features when the crash occurred along I-95 near Gainesville.
Apple is pushing to launch its electric car as early as 2025. It wants to sell the autonomous vehicles to customers, while its rivals aim to roll out their versions as part of a fleet of “robotaxis” — similar to Uber, just without the driver.
The technology driving autonomous vehicles is still not ready to safely account for other environmental factors such as other cars, pedestrians, and bikes. This has forced companies to push back the anticipated rollouts of self-driving vehicles.
The Post has sought comment from Apple.