For a while we’ve known about Apple’s interest in self-driving cars and the technology behind it. We’re not sure what the company plans to do about it, but whatever the company is planning for the technology is certainly progressing thanks to a recent hire in the form of Jaime Waydo, a senior engineer who previously worked with Waymo and was also at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Speaking to The Information (paywall), Waydo’s former co-workers told the publication that she was “instrumental” at the company. To be more specific, Waydo checked the safety of Waymo’s prototypes and also helped to coach the company when they started conducting real-world road tests in Phoenix, Arizona. When at NASA, one of her accomplishments was developing one of the agency’s Mars rovers vehicle.
It is unclear what Waydo’s position will be at Apple, but given her work at Waymo, it is possible that Apple is trying to cover all their bases when it comes to safety features of self-driving cars, especially with recent incidents like the one involving Uber. Like we said it’s anyone’s guess as to what Apple plans to do with its self-driving tech.
Earlier rumors suggested that Apple could get into building cars, but it has been pointed out that this could be too big of an undertaking even for a company as big as Apple. An alternate possibility is that Apple could simply be looking to develop the technology and license it out, but either way we’ll just have to wait and see.
Filed in . Read more about NASA, Self-Driving Cars and Waymo.