Apple’s failed self-driving car program left a legacy of powerful AI chips
Apple’s self-driving car program never really got off the ground, but it may have been what made the company’s chips the powerful AI performers they are....
Key points
- Apple’s self-driving car program never really got off the ground, but it may have been what made the company’s chips the powerful AI performers they are.
- Early in the development of the self-driving platform, Apple realized that it would need powerful on-device AI processing.
- While the car processor was never finished, as Mark Gurman details in his latest Power On newsletter, it did lead to the development of the Neural Engine, the backbone of Apple’s on-device AI processing.
- Apple’s failed self-driving car program left a legacy of powerful AI chips The company is accelerating development of the M7 Ultra, which could support up to 1.5TB of RAM.
What happened
Apple’s self-driving car program never really got off the ground, but it may have been what made the company’s chips the powerful AI performers they are. Early in the development of the self-driving platform, Apple realized that it would need powerful on-device AI processing. While the car processor was never finished, as Mark Gurman details in his latest Power On newsletter, it did lead to the development of the Neural Engine, the backbone of Apple’s on-device AI processing. Apple’s failed self-driving car program left a legacy of powerful AI chips The company is accelerating development of the M7 Ultra, which could support up to 1.5TB of RAM. The company is accelerating development of the M7 Ultra, which could support up to 1.5TB of RAM. But by laying the groundwork for on-device AI processing, Apple established itself as an early leader by bringing the Neural Engine to desktops with the M-series chips.