A few days ago, Apple announced that it was acquiring asthma-monitoring startup Tueo Health. Now comes news that the tech giant is expanding its Autonomous Vehicle Talent pool by acquiring Drive.ai
Like the rest of Tech Oligipoly, Apple has been working on autonomous driving technology too, and most of the growth in talent has come from acqui-hire.
According to the industry journal patentlyapple.com, “As of June 4, 2019, the U.S. Patent Office have published 11 Project Titan patents describing various vehicle systems relating to semi or fully autonomous vehicles from advanced safety belts, to providing drivers with superior night vision lighting to motion control seating to suspension systems and more.”
Drive.ai has been for sale for a while and the startup has struggled to gain traction, according to a person familiar with the firm. It has a limited number of pilot tests. One contract with Frisco, Texas, was not renewed after the city cited high costs, VentureBeat reported in March.
The terms of the deal weren’t announced. Drive.ai had raised about $77 million in funding since it was founded in 2015, and according to Pitchbook data, it was valued at about $200 million in 2017. According to its LinkedIn profile, the company had about 158 employees who are likely to join Apple.