This time, Apple’s secrecy could really hurt

Fully Charged From     FOLLOW US SUBSCRIBE   Hiya, it's Shira. It should be obvious that a car is not a smartphone. Apple Inc. is acting like they're the same.  It's no secret that Apple is working on self-driving vehicle technology. Apple is among dozens of companies that have California permits to test autonomous cars on public roads. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, in his way, acknowledged the driverless transportation project in a 2017 Bloomberg Television interview. News outlets regularly report on the ups and downs of this initiative. The company this week confirmed earlier reports that it acquired autonomous vehicle startup Drive.ai. And yet Apple remains far more closed than its peers. Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo, Uber Technologies Inc., Tesla Inc., General Motors Co.'s Cruise and other companies working on this technology talk fairly openly about their broad ambitions for autonomous transportation, milestones in progress and issues for the industry. Apple does none of this. As far as I can tell, Cook's discussions about Apple's autonomous transportation project has never gone beyond the vague generalities in that Bloomberg TV interview.  It's always Apple's tendency to keep mum about a product in development until it's perfect and ready for a world debut. But driverless cars are not smartphones or augmented reality glasses. Emerging technologies, particularly ones that have the potential to save human life and also to take lives, need an open debate among the public and deserve a relatively transparent process -- warts and all. Driverless cars have the potential to transform the nature of cities, upend a country's workforce, impact the environment and necessitate revisions to laws and ethics. The public is not well served by Apple's inclination against engaging on a subject of such importance. Apple may not be well served by its approach, either. Advocates, and some regulators, have pushed companies to disclose more about safety metrics and other information on driverless car technologies, and collaborate with rivals to ensure better and safer progress. Apple is taking discretion to the absurd. Shortly after that Bloomberg interview, Cook reiterated to stock analysts that Apple is interested in autonomous technology and has "a large project going and are making a big investment in this." And that's about it. "I don't want to go any further with that," Cook said. He's been similarly vague since then.  By comparison, Waymo executives regularly talk about the implications of driverless car technology and its potential drawbacks. In Alphabet's most recent earnings call, executives talked about opening a Michigan facility with dedicated autonomous vehicle production, explained Waymo's focus on Uber-like ride services and mentioned making its in-house vehicle sensors available to outside companies. Last week, an Alphabet executive answered a shareholder's question about how autonomous vehicles might affect tax revenue.  To be fair, Alphabet has progressed further with its driverless car project than Apple has, but that shouldn't limit engagement. The biggest benefit from driverless cars may not be in individually owned cars but in improving shared transportation via mass transit and taxi-like services.  No single company can accomplish this in a vacuum. It requires engagement with transportation planners and researchers, input from legal experts, settling on safety benchmarks and working with suppliers. Apple may be doing some of this secretly, but that misses the point. Autonomous technology progress demands a broad coalition and open engagement with the world. Maybe openness is not in Apple's DNA, or maybe Apple's late start in the technology explains its silence. California regulatory reports show that Apple autonomous test cars require more intervention by human backup drivers than many other companies' prototypes. (There is debate about whether this data is the best measure of progress, but it's one of the few available publicly.) Driverless cars won't be ubiquitous on public roads for many years, but policies and public perception are being set now. People in the U.S. are skeptical about driverless cars, and if nothing else, a little more engagement from Apple might help change opinion. --Shira Ovide   Here's what you need to know in global technology news: A little less autopilot at YouTube. After many controversies about people going down rabbit holes of objectionable videos based on YouTube's automated suggestions, the video site said it will let people tell it to stop suggesting videos from particular channels.  Apple loves chips. The company hired a key chip designer from ARM Holdings Inc. He will probably help bring Apple's self-developed chips to the Mac and new device categories like AR headsets.  Google workers aren't done challenging their employer. About 100 workers urged the organizer of San Francisco's Pride parade to boot Google out of the event. The company has been criticized for how it handled a YouTube personality's homophobic and racist remarks, and it asked employees participating in Google's Pride contingent not to protest the decision.  Why the blue check mark should die.    You received this message because you are subscribed to the Bloomberg Technology newsletter Fully Charged. You can tell your friends to sign up here.   Unsubscribe | Bloomberg.com | Contact Us Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022