Though Apple has already suspended efforts of building its own self-driving vehicle, it is now aggressively pushing forward with the development of its in-car operating system. A fresh report from Bloomberg details that the tech giant has most likely taken an unexpected step and set up a research facility in Canada to build its car operating system. Apple usually like to keep its operations close to home, in Cupertino.
The tech behemoth is said to have set up its research office in the Ottawa suburb of Kanata and roped in a handful of engineers from QNX, the leading automotive software provider owned by BlackBerry. QNX is widely known for developing software and infotainment systems for major car brands including the likes of Volkswagen, Audi, BMW and Ford among many others.
Apple might have poached about a dozen employees from QNX but they’ve obviously followed in the footsteps of the most notable addition to the research team. The company has just recently hired former QNX CEO Dan Dodge to lead the transition from being a car software maker to a self-driving software maker. The other employees have been brought in because of their experience in developing fundamental components of power management modules and operating systems.
The report also highlights the fact that Apple is gunning to complete the development of two aspects of its car operating system — infotainment and self-driving. The infotainment software will most likely become the heart of the car platform and a valuable addition to its cohort of operating systems. While the future of the system will be based on partnering with major automobile manufacturers to test out its self-driving tech using their vehicles.
But in the meantime, Apple is said to be using in-house virtual reality simulations to test its self-driving software due to the lack of a real automobile. Also since the tech behemoth is late to the party, the engineers working on this OS have been given until fall to present this basic self-driving tech. Apple will then decide the true path that its operating system should take on from further her on.
