It seems Apple doesn’t want to settle for iPhones, iPads, or even Macs, as the company is reportedly looking to expand into personal robotics, touted as one of the “next big things” for the company after shutting down the Apple Car project in February.
This comes from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who’s generally right about such developments and often a reliable source. He reports that Apple engineers could be working on a mobile robot that “follows users around their homes” citing people in the know. In addition, the report mentioned that the company has also crafted a table-top home device equipped with robotics to “move a display around.”
While details remain under wraps at this moment at the early stages, digging deeper into this speculation suggests that it might have been the very Apple plan once it shut down the ambitious “Project Titan,” a.k.a Apple Car, and shifted the team to focus on artificial intelligence instead. Well, the reasoning behind this is mobile robot technology also relies on artificial intelligence to manipulate objects and for the system to make decisions on its own, and find solutions quickly. Additionally, Apple’s rumored safetyOS — originally intended for the canceled Apple Car, might not be wasted, after all. The company could potentially utilize both for the speculated Apple mobile robot.
What follows is that Apple is reportedly using AI algorithms to assist the rumored mobile robot in navigating cluttered areas within homes, and it’s unclear what the robot would do and how it would help in real life. More importantly, Apple has been reported to developing robots to assist with daily chores, but it might not happen soon due to tough engineering challenges, as noted by Gurman. That said, Apple’s mobile robot for homes could rival Amazon’s Astro, which, if you’re unaware, offers home security features and moves around the home.
There’s a back story to why Apple started “Project Titan” in the first place, it’s because the former CEO Steve Jobs had a strong belief that iPhones wouldn’t be the business-runner in the future, and he realized that it was about to disrupt another industry to keep the game running, but Apple was too late to disrupt things with Apple Car. Tesla has grown bigger, and Chinese giants such as Xiaomi have also entered the EV arena with SU7, so Apple might move ahead to bringing another technology, better put as one of the “next big things”.