Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Doesn’t Believe in Self-Driving Cars

After some frustration with the technology, Woz has relinquished his faith in autonomous cars.

byElizabeth Puckett|
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Apple’s co-founder, Steve Wozniak, doesn’t think self-driving cars are possible to implement in the near future—his ideas seem to stem from personal frustrations with the technology.

Wozniak told CNBC that he once had dreams of Apple building the first self-driving car but now feels as though technology is not quite advanced enough. He explained, "I do not believe in auto-driving cars,” adding that, "I don't really believe it's quite possible yet,” and people should "not lose sight of the fact you're not going to get a car that drives itself."

The major concern Wozniak seems to have about the reality of completely self-driving cars is that roads were built by humans, humans are imperfect, and the cars are currently unable to account for this factor.

Wozniak himself owns a Tesla, citing that he enjoys driving it, but doesn’t think Autopilot is what people think it is. The root of his skepticism supposedly stems from his experience with his vehicle. He explains that he had upgraded his Tesla before relenting the idea that his car would have the ability to completely self-drive. 

"Tesla makes so many mistakes," Woz said during the CNBC interview, though he didn't offer much info to support the comment. "It really convinces me that auto piloting and auto steering car driving itself is not going to happen."

The Drive reached out to Tesla for a response on Wozniak's claim, though one was not returned at the time of publishing.

Apple

Apple’s driverless car initiative, initially called Project Titan, has been one with little details released to the public. According to several reports, the program has had issues with leadership and problems that caused the company to shelve the idea in 2016. Recent rumors now suggest that Apple might be refocusing on car production, especially after rehiring Tesla engineer Doug Field a few months back, as well as dozens of other ex-Tesla employees in 2018. 

While the hires would seem to contradict Wozniak's interview, it could signal that Apple would be developing cars with a focus on driver assist technologies, as opposed to going after fully autonomous vehicle development. 

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