Apple and Volkswagen plan to develop a completely autonomous vehicle model and use it as a transporter van for their employees. The car won’t be getting a mass market release, though.
According to The New York Times, the agreement has already been signed, and the companies will proceed with designing the vehicle using the VW Transporter as base.
Both industry leaders call it a valuable experience. Apple representatives used to talk about the company’s ambition to release a self-driving car series quite a while ago. There were even rumors that the project would involve such giants as Mercedes or BMW, but things have never moved past that point.
Apple made another attempt at researching and developing an autonomous EV a few years ago, with the release date expected to be somewhere in 2019, but that one was also shut down pretty soon.
Looks like this time around Apple is finally going to get its very own autonomous van – even though with the Volkswagen name written on it. The company has actually come a long way in self-drive tech development and is testing its latest system on Lexus RX vehicles. The new Apple/VW Transporter is most likely to get the same system.
Photo: 01net.com