Apple, earlier last year, confirmed their interest in developing a self-driving car and their ambitious project has now taken a new turn as they got a permit from California’s DMV to test autonomous cars on public roads. 

Cult of Mac discovered that Calfornia DMV’s was updated yesterday where a list of thirty companies testing self-driving cars was published. These companies have been granted a permit by the DMV and some of the companies in the list include Tesla, BMW, Google, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Apple amongst others. 

© YouTube

Having said that, Apple being granted a permit to test autonomous cars doesn’t mean that we will be seeing them anytime soon. The DMV clarified that Apple has been approved to test three 2015 Lexus RX450h cars to test their technology with the assistance of six drivers.  

Apple has hired plenty of engineers so that they can develop their own car from scratch however the project’s direction has now changed from making simple cars to creating cars with self-driving capabilities. Apple has their own native “Maps” app and they have been mapping cities rigorously to help gather more data. There is no word whether Apple Maps will be integrated into the self-driving car to expand their horizons. 

Here is the full list of companies that have been granted a permit to test self-driving cars in California:

Credits: California DMV

Source: Cult of Mac