I Just Saw the Apple Maps Car How Long Until Its Uploaded
Spotted: Is Apple Car self-driving tech being tested with this white van?
Seeing weird cars is not out of the norm when yous live in the Bay Area, but a white van driving around a cluster of Apple function buildings in Sunnyvale, Calif. on Thursday grabbed my attention.
At offset blush, the van – a Ford Transit – appeared to be just another Apple tree Maps van. Information technology had similar Lidar canisters and cameras on the roof, though was conspicuously a different vehicle than the Contrivance Caravans gathering Maps data many, including myself, have observed cruising public roads.
"Looks like an updated version of the Apple Maps van," I thought for a hot second.
While information technology still could well be merely that, a few noticeable differences suggested the van might perhaps be related to the Apple Car or other cocky-driving automobile project by the Cupertino firm.
Lots of Lidar
For i, the configuration of the equipment on the roof is different than anything I've seen on an Apple tree Maps van previously. Instead of iv cameras on the corners and 2 Lidar at the front and back of the rig, this vehicle had iv Lidar on the corners and cameras (ii in the rear that I could tell) positioned on the front end and back.
The ii rear Lidars were spinning furiously. The two in the front didn't announced to exist moving or weren't moving nearly as much as the two in dorsum, though they were harder to run into clearly.
Lidar is employed by cocky-driving vehicles to detect objects in their surroundings, like other cars and pedestrians. Using lasers, Lidars picks up stuff that cameras may not run into and figures out the altitude to those objects. Google uses it on its self-driving cars, as does Ford.
While Apple Maps vans besides have Lidar, the sheer number of them on this vehicle and their position at the corners are noteworthy.
There was a driver in the van who I saw, hands on the cycle, steer it out of a parking lot driveway. So, at that place was someone controlling the machine – at to the lowest degree at certain points during the trip.
Once the automobile hit the road, I couldn't come across the driver or whether he was in control of the vehicle. The van proceeded well under the speed limit downwards a small stretch of surface street before turning into some other driveway.
Other clues
The black bump in the middle of the rig on the roof is larger than the white box on top of other Apple tree Maps vans. It may point to a new configuration for Apple's mapping equipment, only information technology also might be that it houses a larger number of sophisticated sensors for self-driving purposes.
An antenna-like sensor was attached to the rear commuter-side wheel and plugged into the car, much similar ones we've already seen sticking out of Dodge Caravan wheels.
Probable likewise low and as well far down the side to be a GPS sensor on its own (those are typically on the height of self-driving cars, and could have been housed in the black box in this case), information technology may exist an ultrasonic sensor. These are used by self-driving cars to measure distance in tight spots, such as a parallel parking job where the vehicle needs to know how shut it is to other cars and the adjourn.
Similar rear-wheel ultrasonic sensors were mounted on early Google self-driving cars, though with its new pod motorcar, Google has moved the sensors into the rear wheel itself.
The terminal clue this isn't a Maps car is that the vehicle had no tell-tale signage that I could run across indicating information technology was beingness used for that purpose.
For a while, Apple Maps minivans drove around with no markings at all, leading many to speculate the tech-bedecked cars were cocky-driving vehicles.
Eventually Apple began putting prominent "Apple Maps" decals on the rear windows forth with ones that read "maps.apple tree.com", as seen beneath. It also published a spider web page about the vehicles, detailing their purpose in gathering data to "improve Apple Maps."
There were no such decals or other signs indicating whether the white Transit was a Maps automobile - or even belonged to Apple - that I could encounter on the vehicle.
If not Maps, what is it?
The white van could be part of the Apple Maps armada. While information technology didn't have the markings of a mapping minivan and is noticeably different than the vehicles seen before, at that place's always a chance information technology'due south just related to Apple'southward Maps efforts.
Apple is thought to be collecting its own Street View-like looks for Maps, to be implemented in later on updates, so this van could be role of an endeavor to get together more detailed 3D views of the world.
But there are as well signs this could very well exist related to a self-driving automobile projection. The Lidar on four corners – the better to get a 360-caste view of environment with – the rear-wheel sensor, and the lack of markings indicating whether information technology'southward a Maps car all suggest that information technology could be related to a self-driving initiative.
I doubt Apple tree would go public with a cocky-driving motorcar project using a Ford Transit, but this particular van could have been gathering information for a time to come self-driving system or total-blown car. It may accept been testing out equipment, sensors and the overall system during its jaunt around the Apple tree buildings.
Information technology'south idea the Apple Machine could characteristic some kind of autonomous driving features, though non be fully democratic due in no small-scale part to affordability concerns.
Apple has stayed mum on whether it'due south building a car, even while others accept taken the freedom to design one for the iPhone maker.
The closest hint we've gotten in any official capacity is from Apple tree CEO Tim Cook, who in February said waiting for the Apple Car will feel like being a kid the nighttime before Christmas.
"Information technology's going to be Christmas Eve for a while," he said, though notably he didn't rule out a machine would be unwrapped at some point, and seemed to indicate there'd exist a payoff for all the anticipation in the end.
Was the white van I saw gathering data for an autonomous driving arrangement to exist employed in the long-rumored, long-teased Apple Automobile? In that location's no way to know for sure, merely it seems like a reasonable possibility.
I've asked Apple for annotate on the van, and will update this story if I hear back.
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Michelle was previously a news editor at TechRadar, leading consumer tech news and reviews. Michelle is now a Content Strategist at Facebook. A versatile, highly effective content writer and skilled editor with a bang-up middle for detail, Michelle is a collaborative problem solver and covered everything from smartwatches and microprocessors to VR and self-driving cars.
Source: https://www.techradar.com/news/car-tech/spotted-is-apple-car-tech-being-tested-with-this-white-van-1319142
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