California residents might have seen one of Apple's newest inventions on the roadways. The technology company is stretching its wings with autonomous cars.
Apple's Self-Driving Cars
The company that introduced the iMac, iPod, and the iPhone to the world is building a fleet of self-driving cars. According to MacReports, Apple has registered 55 autonomous vehicles with the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
Four months ago, only 27 vehicles were registered with the government agency. Now 83 company employees are certified to operate these vehicles on the California roadways.
Apple's Significant Competitors
Apple is not the only company that has its eyes set on autonomous vehicles. Other corporations have registered their self-driving cars with the California DMV. General Motors' self-driving vehicle, Cruise, has the most registered cars with 104 vehicles and 407 employees to operate their vehicles. Waymo, which is owned by Google's parent company Alphabet Inc., has permits for 51 vehicles and 338 drivers. Elon Musk's Tesla only has 39 vehicles on the road and 92 drivers to work with the cars.
California's DMV Requirements
As of publication, the companies do not have the privilege to conduct driverless testing thoroughly. The California DMV requires that companies that seek permits to perform driverless testing must prepare their vehicles to SAE Levels 4 (High Automation) and 5 (Full Automation). At these levels, an automated driving system is expected to operate the entire aspect of the vehicles.
More Apple Headlines
In addition to strengthening its self-driving vehicles in California, the software company has been making other headlines. The Northern California's U.S. District Court had filed a class-action lawsuit representing "thousands" of users whose lawsuit states that several models of the MacBook and the MacBook Pro have defective keyboards. It also claims that Apple knew about the problem but failed to let its customers know about the defects.
The company has also allegedly eliminated some applications from its App Store. An e-mail from Apple's Resolution Center circulated across social media addressed to an unidentified developer. The message stated that the developer did not follow the App Store Review Guidelines related to data collection, usage, and sharing. Developers are forbidden to hand over user data to third parties. If companies want their apps to return to the store, they need to remove any codes related to location sharing with third parties.
According to Strategy Analytics, the iPhone X sold over 16 million units worldwide in the first quarter of 2018. The $1,000 smartphone comes with Face ID and an OLED display that the company had to order from Samsung. Three other Apple products -- iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone 7 -- made it to the Top 4 bestselling smartphones.
Tech Times reached out to Apple for a comment on this story.
