Apple Working On A Self-Driving Employee Shuttle

The latest reports suggest that Apple may be working on a self-driving shuttle for its employees. The new self-driving shuttle project is codenamed “PAIL,” short for Palo Alto to Infinite Loop. The shuttle will reportedly run from Apple’s current campus to its new one. Surprisingly, Apple will supposedly use another automaker’s commercial vehicle for the project, rather than building the vehicle itself. The company will then use the vehicle to test the autonomous driving technology it develops.

Apple was earlier reported to be working on a self-driving car initiative, nicknamed – Project Titan. The iPhone maker started the Project Titan in 2014 and hoped to shake up the auto industry like it did with the mobile business. In 2015, Apple’s COO Jeff Williams said: “The car is the ultimate mobile device, isn’t it?”. However, the company gave up on the self-driving automobiles pretty soon, indicating that Apple might have underestimated the complexity of the task. But it seems like Titan wasn’t the last of Apple’s efforts to venture into the auto industry.

Timothy D. Cook, CEO of Apple Inc. in an interview, mentioned that Apple is “focusing on autonomous systems.” Many tech companies like Apple have made similar efforts to build a self-driving car. Waymo, a division of Alphabet, is also focusing on building software for cars made by traditional manufacturers.

Given the company was granted a permit for testing self-driving cars, but gave up on the dream too soon, we hope, (Apple employees certainly do) that PAIL turns out to be more than just a concept. It has been said that under Bobby Mansfield’s (a hardware engineer at Apple) guidance, the team is more focused and the morale has improved. But it seems that the smartphone maker would need more than just improved morale and focus, as Apple is hardly the only company working on self-driving technology.