Apple may not be building a self-driving car, but it sure cares a lot about rules for self-driving cars

Jav OfficeFor a company that isn’t supposed to be working on a self-driving car, Apple has a lot of very specific thoughts on federal rules for self-driving cars.

Apple has spelled them out in a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, where the company says it is “investing heavily in the study of machine learning and automation and is excited about the potential of automated systems in many areas, including transportation.”

That doesn’t mean Apple is actually building a self-driving car — a series of reports indicates that Apple had been interested in that idea, but now seems more likely to be licensing out its software for other people’s self-driving cars.

But the letter does suggest that Apple wants to keep its options open if it does decide to build a car.

Whether Apple ultimately decides to develop its own car or license its software, this letter is the closest the company has come to revealing its official thoughts on self-driving technology.

The letter, written by Steve Kenner, Apple’s director of product integrity, calls on regulators to treat new players the same as established car makers when they want to test self-driving cars, in order to “create a fair environment for all companies to make progress toward automated vehicles.”

Like many of its potential competitors, Apple also expressed concern over a portion of the NHTSA guidelines that calls on companies to share safety information and data with each other. A coalition of companies with interests in the car business, — including Google, Uber, Lyft, Volvo, and Ford — has made it clear that they don’t want to expose proprietary information.

Apple, which Kenner wrote is looking forward to “collaborating with other stakeholders to define the specific data that should be shared,” also expressed concern over securing the privacy of its consumers’ data and suggested that other companies should be investing resources into doing so.

We’ve reached out to Apple for comment on the letter and will update if and when we hear back.

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Brian Wallace, the former chief marketing officer for Magic Leap who left secretive VR company in November, is heading over to a new project led by Andy Rubin, according to sources.

Wallace comes from the mobile phone world. He’s previously had gigs at Samsung, BlackBerry and Google, where Rubin also used to work on mobile projects. Now Rubin runs Playground, a hardware incubator that’s looking to fund the next hit products.

Andy Rubin is known as the main creator behind Android. And until a couple of years ago, he led Google’s robotics division. Under Rubin’s leadership, Google raced to acquire a handful of promising robotics startups, including Boston Dynamics, which Google now hopes to sell.

During Wallace’s tenure at Magic Leap, the company raked in venture capital, raising more than $1.3 billion, including funds from Qualcomm Ventures and Google. Magic Leap was valued at $4.5 billion earlier this year, according to Bloomberg.Jav IDEA POCKET

Recode reached out to Rubin to ask for additional details, but he did not immediately respond. Bloomberg reporter Mark Bergen earlier announced the move on Twitter.

Ride-hail’s next battleground in the fight for passengers: Inside the car

There is very little loyalty in ride-hail. In many markets, drivers work with multiple platforms and often accept the first request that comes in. Riders, on the other hand, typically choose a service based on price, availability and convenience.Japanese censored
For years, Uber, Lyft and many of their counterparts around the globe have worked hard to scale a passenger “experience.” Many (myself included) argued that transporting a culture and aesthetic from market to market was a lofty, if not impossible, goal because the passengers’ primary interaction with said culture was with the companies’ hundreds of thousands of drivers.

As independent contractors, drivers cannot be “trained” by the company or told how to perform their jobs; otherwise, they could argue they are, in fact, employees of Uber and Lyft.

So now, as valuations soar and the need to deliver returns becomes more pressing, ride-hail companies are competing for passenger loyalty by attempting to enhance the in-car experience using ... well ... technology. While Uber took the software approach, the company’s main competitors, Lyft and Ola, have instead decided to make a push into hardware.

Manufacturing hardware, which neither Lyft nor Ola are charging its drivers for, is an often costly and time-consuming endeavor, especially considering that the appeal of app-based companies is not having to worry about covering the costs of things like creating, producing and then shipping a physical product. (Neither company would disclose the cost to produce their devices.)
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More importantly, it’s also unclear whether it’s a worthy push for either company as they continue to fight an expensive war against Uber in the U.S. and India. While figuring out how to scale an experience tangibly is a difficult problem to solve, it seems unlikely that passengers would choose one service over another based on the presence of these devices.

But the bottom line is that these companies are increasingly competing on experience and branding. It’s pretty clear Lyft, Uber and Ola are betting that an investment in the resources needed to do it right will work.

Uber, for its part, rolled out a new and improved passenger app that acts as a pseudo-concierge while on a ride. With its integration with its sister-app UberEats, for example, riders will be able to see all the restaurants that can deliver to their destination by the time (or near the time) that they arrive there.

Eventually, it will also work closely with other apps like Yelp (so riders who choose a restaurant as a destination can automatically see reviews and ratings) and Snapchat (to send filtered pictures with rider ETAs). The benefit of simply revamping the app to do what other companies are doing through hardware is 1) it’s likely much less expensive for Uber and 2) Uber is accessing its passengers through a device every single one of them already have and use.
Lyft

In mid-November, Lyft unveiled a bluetooth-enabled device that would effectively replace its pink LED mustache. The device, called amp, glows different colors to signal to passengers which car is theirs and also displays custom messages for each rider.

Lyft has long pitched itself as the “friendly” ride-hail service, hoping that it would be enough to differentiate its service from Uber. This pill-shaped device is a small step toward making the Lyft experience an actual physical experience without forcing drivers to do something, as I argued previously.

While Lyft is building the software in-house, the company has contracted with a third-party to manufacture these devices for its hundreds of thousands of drivers in the U.S. Its functionality, in its current iteration, is meager and does little to actually enhance the passenger’s ride experience. But to its credit, it may potentially cut down on the time it takes riders to connect with drivers.
Ola

Ola, Uber’s competitor in India, has also taken the hardware approach — but it’s taken it one step further. As part of a partnership with Qualcomm, Ola began rolling out tablets that are connected to the vehicle’s operating system and allows passengers to take control of the in-car experience, like the music, from the back seat of the car. To that end, the company has also partnered with Apple Play and plans to partner with more companies in order to build an entire ecosystem of apps and integrations into the tablet.

The premise is that because of traffic in India, rides are longer, and Ola alone has seen over 60 million minutes in travel time.

“There’s a lot of innovation happening in this space but ... with regards to in-car experience, they’re all essentially happening at the beginning and end of the ride. [We wanted to see] how can we make the ride itself more interesting,” Ola spokesperson Anand Subramanian told Recode during a previous interview.
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However, Ola too has now taken on the very expensive burden of working with third-party manufacturers in China to produce these tablets. To add to that, the company also has to install the hardware into each vehicle, which takes about an hour. In other words, this is costing the company significant time and money.

The ultimate success of these devices rests on whether the companies see an increase in both passenger retention and new rider acquisition. Failing that, Lyft and Ola can try to monetize that passenger interaction. Neither company has ruled out allowing advertisements on its devices. In Ola’s case, there is also the opportunity to cut deals with partnering companies for every new user of their service or simply for exposure to new users.

Apple will need the FAA’s blessing if it wants to use drones to improve its Maps

Jav DvdApple wants to fly drones to improve Maps by collecting more up-to-date information about road changes and street signs, according to a Bloomberg report.

Right now, however, it's illegal to fly drones over busy, populated areas and near airports, although the rules are still being written.

Customers have long complained Apple Maps doesn’t work very well, turning to Google’s rival mapping app instead. Google has amassed tons of data driving camera-laden vans down every street to build what may be the most comprehensive maps app in the world.

The Cupertino company requested a waiver to fly drones for aerial photography last year, before the federal rules for commercial drones were finalized. Apple requested permission to fly 11 different types of drones, including aircraft from Parrot’s senseFly, three from DJI and one of Intel’s AscTec Falcon 8 drones.

Apple was granted the exception in March, but it plans to operate drones largely over private property, not over crowded public roads where Apple really needs data to improve the Maps app.

This month the FAA is expected to release a proposal for new rules that would dictate how drones will be allowed to fly over people. If Apple truly does hope to use drones to improve Maps, the company will likely have to get involved in the FAA rulemaking process. Recode reached out to Apple to ask if the company plans to engage with the FAA’s rule process, but the company didn’t immediately respond.Jav 1Pondo


Apple could become an unlikely ally of Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook in its drone efforts. Amazon, which wants to deliver goods by drone, has been involved for years trying to work with the FAA to craft drone policy, but it has been frustrated by the FAA’s slow pace. Alphabet and Facebook have also been involved.

Unlike its competitors, Apple so far hasn’t indicated any plans to build its own drones. The hardware giant even sells DJI drones at its flagship stores.

If the new FAA rules do include privacy provisions that, say, prohibit collecting video or images over populated areas, Apple’s plan to fly drones to improve Maps may not pan out.

If Apple does decide to throw its hat in the game and weigh in on the FAA’s policy-making process, it will join the ranks of companies like AT&T and UPS, all of which envision a future where drones can play a central role in how they serve their customers, collect data and improve their products.

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