Ever since Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the company is working on “autonomous systems” for cars, details have trickled out as well as a few public sightings of the technology Now, thanks to the co-founder of self-driving car startup Voyage, we’re getting an up close look at—and some expert insight on—Apple’s Project Titan.
MacCallister Higgins tweeted a short video Tuesday of the Apple car, a converted Lexus SUV loaded with sensors and autonomous hardware. The video shows only the equipment on the roof, which is the most important detail.
Going to need more than 140 characters to go over 🍎's Project Titan. I call it "The Thing" pic.twitter.com/sLDJd7iYSa
— MacCallister Higgins (@macjshiggins) October 17, 2017
In the thread that follows, another photo was of the Apple self-driving car was posted.
I saw one of these a few weeks ago pull up to an Apple shuttle stop-sit there for a few then drove off. Pic.twitter.com/gUudZY1TIA
— lostmybeard (@idiggapple) October 18, 2017
Higgins noted a few other interesting details about the Apple test car. For one, most of the compute stack on Apple’s car is located on the roof, unlike many other self-driving test cars that usually load it all into the trunk.
The Apple car also has six light ranging and detection radar units, called LiDAR, which is basically a camera that sees depth. LiDAR is considered by many an essential piece of technology needed to safely deploy self-driving cars en masse.
A New York Times report in August said Apple was going to test its autonomous vehicle technology in a shuttle that transports the company’s employees between buildings on its campus. The report said the shuttle will most likely come from an established car manufacturer, rather than being a wholly in-house creation.