San Francisco– Apple has purchased autonomous vehicle startup Drive.ai for undisclosed amount, according to reports.
The start-up had raised $77m in venture capital, with its latest round in 2017 valuing it at $200m.
Drive.ai was founded in 2015 by machine learning researchers from Stanford University and had been running a ride-hailing service with its autonomous shuttles in Texas, The Verge reported late on Tuesday.
The Cupertino-based company has hired dozens of Drive.ai engineers and Drive.ai has ceased all operations over the course of the last few weeks. The deal and hires confirm that the iPhone maker hasn’t given up its autonomous driving project.
Earlier this year, Apple cut over 200 employees from its Project Titan team due to what it called “restructuring.”
In July last year, Drive.ai partnered up with the City of Frisco, Texas to launch its first autonomous pilot programme. (IANS)
