At the beginning of this year, Apple officially abandoned its decade-long "Titan" car plan, and on April 7, according to Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with Apple's research team, Apple is exploring the field of home robots, and this new project could be one of Apple's "next big thing".
Apple Cancels Its Autonomous Electric Car Project
In 2014, Apple CarPlay seized the era of car screens and became an instant hit over Apple Music. Since then, Apple seems to sense the future of smart cars, so it invested about $1 billion a year to start a car building journey called "Titan Project".
A decade has passed and the fully autonomous electric car, which was scheduled to be released in 2025, has not been with everyone.
These trade-offs are being made because Apple's competitors, such as Microsoft and Google, have made significant strides in generative AI, while Apple is lagging relatively behind in this area. At the same time, processor performance growth has begun to level off, and Apple is seeking a solid foothold in the smart home market.
Apple Robot Rumors
Apple has been exploring new products beyond phones and computers for the past several years, and it's no surprise that decisions like home robots, which is tightly integrated with AI, has become another point of focus for the company. In the past two years, the home robot market has grown particularly significantly, and robotics is the next area in which Apple will be involved.
Apple's home robot program is still in the early stages of development, with Apple's engineering team working on a variety of home robots as well as AI software and features, Bloomberg reports. Apple's robotics team is led by John Giannandrea, who is responsible for Siri as well as machine learning, and the following robot forms are currently in development.
Mobile Robot
One is a robot with wheels that can move and follow the user, equivalent to a moving iPad, capable of making FaceTime calls, real-time monitoring of the house, and answering and executing simple questions through Siri. Meanwhile, Apple is further exploring artificial intelligence algorithms that will be used to help the robot move smoothly through a cluttered house.
Table-Top Robot
Another project is described as an "advanced desktop home device" in which the robot is used to move a display, adjust position and orientation through a robotic arm, and mimic human nodding or shaking of the head during FaceTime calls.
Other Home Devices
Of course, Apple is not the first company to research intelligent robots. As early as 2021, Amazon launched a robot called Astro that can navigate around the house and remotely check on specific rooms, people and things, and can even be used to remotely care for elderly loved ones with the aid of voice assistant Alexa.
In addition, Tesla also launched the "Optimus Prime" humanoid robot in 2022, SONY launched the Aibo robot dog, iRobot company launched the Roomba vacuum robot and so on.
Apple's research and development of robots is still in the early stages, and it is uncertain what form and function of robots will be introduced in the future. Of course, it may also be abandoned halfway like the Titan program. Whether Apple can create something as transformative as the iPhone remains to be seen, but it is likely to spark another wave of robotics craze.
