Tuesday Apple earlier rumors about the company's intentions for the development of self-driving cars. Thus, Apple once again declared itself as a company that sets itself the goal of bringing cars with autopilots to the roads.
The amount of the transaction is traditionally not disclosed. According to some estimates, the market value of Drive.ai could reach $ 200 million. The last time the startup received $ 77 million from investors in the next series of fundraising. At the same time, the young company was having difficulty financing the project. For example, the San Francisco Chronicle published Drive.ai's notice to the regulator in California about the planned closure of the company and the dismissal of 90 employees. This could mean that Apple got the rights to Drive.ai for the price of the company's debts.
Interestingly, Drive.ai worked with the city of Arlington, Texas on a project to shuttle passengers with autonomous vehicles. This means that the startup has serious developments, as well as a staff of experienced engineers. With dozens of startup engineers joining Apple along with Drive.ai's assets in the form of developments and cars, the Cuppertinians will not start from scratch.
However, Apple itself also deals with cars with autopilots. At the end of last year, for example, the company brought self-driving Lexus SUVs with live drivers to the roads of California to control autopilots. True, in January, Apple fired about 200 employees of the Titan project, which sources associate with the company's self-driving car project. Obviously, the Apple management didnβt like something in the course of work, since the company continued to work on the project, but already with the connection to the development of the Drive.ai team.
Source: 3dnews.ru