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> Why it matters: The deal and hires confirm that Apple hasn't given up its autonomous driving project.

I think the first sign was the near continuous sightings of Apple’s self driving cars in Cupertino. At one point i literally saw four of them at the intersection of Homestead and Wolfe (next to the spaceship), one going in each direction.

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That almost sounds like a set-piece, making sure they don't interfere with each other (assuming they're using LIDAR).

I’m not sure about this. This kind of integration test would almost certainly be performed in a closed course (parking lot / garage).

Well, as an initial test, sure, but you have to do the same test in an open road once you know it works in isolation.

It probably also makes sense to do it in an environment with lots of reflections of different kinds. If you were genuinely worried about your primary sensor getting bad data, you definitely wouldn't test four of them together in the real world until you were quite sure they would be fine. Just imagine two of them taking off at the light and swerving wildly around phantom cars!

Was that before they laid off 190 employees from the self-driving team?

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