Apple’s cars might be hitting the road sooner than we think

The DMV tells the paper that “the Apple meeting was to review [the] DMV’s autonomous vehicle regulations“, though the exact topics of discussion aren’t known.

The tête-à-tête between Apple’s senior legal counsel Mike Maletic, DMV deputy director Bernard Soriano and its chief of strategic planning Stephanie Dougherty lasted about an hour, the Guardian reports.

Also alleged to have attended the meeting is Brian Soublet, deputy director and chief counsel of the DMV. Google has long been working on self-driving cars, and its prototype has been out on California roads in recent months. Heavily camouflaged test vehicles are the norm for all auto makers, who need to put in many thousands of miles on public roads before even announcing new cars, let alone bringing them to market. The revelation comes amid widespread rumors that Apple has hired hundreds of employees to develop an electric vehicle over the past several months. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook further added fuel to the fire on Tuesday during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. It was reported this past summer that Apple’s Special Project group met with officials at GoMentum Station, a 2,100 acre former navel base in San Francisco thought to now be a secure testing ground for new vehicles. A draft of these guidelines was meant to be due at the beginning of 2015, but is running behind schedule. Many carmakers and automotive technology companies, including Volkswagen-Audi, General Motors, Nissan, Continental and Google, have been closely involved in the process, as California is widely expected to influence national rules in the future. In fact, the Guardian reports that “10 companies have been issued permits for about 80 autonomous vehicles and more than 300 test drivers”.

Apple has not talked publicly about any plans. “Manufacturers applying for a permit have to detail the make, model and vehicle identification number of cars they want to test, share details of autonomous features and capabilities, and identify test drivers by name”, the Guardian reports.

Earlier this year, Apple began to roll out a fleet of cars fitted with cameras to create its own mapping data, which will be necessary for any driverless vehicle to work.

We already know that California’s DMV is now working on regulations to control the eventual public rollout of self-driving vehicles.