Economy | Apple is suspected of hiring a lot of people in Arizona to test self-driving cars

Economy | Apple is suspected of hiring a lot of people in Arizona to test self-driving cars. News from Lei Feng.com on November 29, according to foreign media MacRumors Recently...

News from Lei Feng.com on November 29, according to foreign media MacRumors Recently, it was reported that anonymous sources broke the news that Apple is testing self-driving cars in Arizona and has recently begun recruiting relevant staff.

> Sources say that over the past few months, Apple has been recruiting multiple test engineers and technicians at the former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles testing site near the state. Apple has made it clear during the recruitment process that what needs to be tested is self-driving technology.

The site was sold to a real estate developer in 2005 for $312 million, but was later taken back by the city of Surprise and remained untouched for years. According to people who have visited the test site, the site meets a number of driving simulation conditions, such as oval speed loops, roads with different slopes (including road conditions that can simulate wet weather), and intersections.

Previous records indicate that the site has been leased to a company called Route 14 Investment Partners LLC. Although it is currently unclear whether Apple has a clear connection with this company, judging from previous reports, Apple is already familiar with using Shell for property, trademark leasing and other purposes.

At the same time, previous reports showed that Chrysler had used this test site to test the effects of various harsh environments on car bodies and coatings.

Arizona in the United States can be regarded as a relatively active area in the development of autonomous driving technology. According to foreign media reports, the state’s road testing policy for autonomous driving technology is the most friendly in the United States, which has attracted many companies, including Uber, to conduct road testing in the region.

Google's sister company Waymo has also been testing self-driving cars in Arizona. After nine years of development, Waymo has stated that it will officially launch its autonomous taxi service in Phoenix, Arizona in the next few months.

Currently neither Apple nor Chrysler has confirmed Apple’s remarks about deploying self-driving cars in the state.

Although Apple started later than Waymo, Uber, Tesla and other car manufacturers in the field of autonomous driving, it is making steady progress.

Apple has obtained a license from the California government to test self-driving cars on the road. Not long ago, Apple also rarely disclosed a new autonomous driving research and development technology through a paper. It is understood that this technology can accurately identify surrounding road conditions by relying on software tools using only lidar. Now, as sources have revealed, Apple is recruiting people to test autonomous driving technology in Arizona. It is not difficult to see its efforts and determination in the field of autonomous driving.

Overall, Apple still faces huge challenges in this field. Whether it is autonomous driving technology or automotive equipment, there is a gap of several years with the leading manufacturers in this field. Especially in areas such as data accumulation and artificial intelligence, it lags far behind its competitors. And we should all know that these gaps will still take time to catch up.