The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced today that it’s forming a new Automation Committee to oversee self-driving transportation policy and one of its 25 members happens to be Apple’s Vice President of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, Lisa Jackson.
According to the department’s press release, the newly formed committee will have its first meeting later this month on January 16 and the focus of the group will be to address “the development and deployment of automated vehicles, and determining the needs of the Department as it continues with its relevant research, policy, and regulations.”
As technology develops, automation may play a larger role in a number of modes of transportation, including cars, buses, trains, planes, and UAS (drone) systems. This committee will play a critical role in sharing best practices, challenges, and opportunities in automation, and will open lines of communication so stakeholders can learn and adapt based on feedback from each other.
While Jackson serves as Apple’s Vice President of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, and often appears as a face of the company related to environmental efforts, Apple’s role on the committee is notable due to its secretive Apple Car initiative known as Project Titan. As of September, after reports that Apple was looking to reboot the project to focus on an autonomous self-driving platform, one report claimed the company already has fully autonomous vehicles being tested on closed routes. Apple even confirmed interest in autonomous systems to transform ‘the future of transportation’ in a letter it sent to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that was uncovered last month. That news came amid reports that Apple was attempting to refocus the team and even laying off some employees in the process.
Earlier this week we reported that Swift creator and Apple’s longtime leader of Xcode/dev tools team left the company to join Tesla, while another high profile Apple employee who worked on many iconic Macs also left for Tesla this month. There have been many reports over the last year of a poaching war between the two companies, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in June last year that he thinks Apple may have left it too late on its car project.
Full list of committee members below:
