Apple’s self-driving car program has left a legacy of powerful AI chips

Apple’s self-driving car program It never got off the groundbut perhaps this is what made the company’s chips have such a strong performance in the field of artificial intelligence. Early in developing its self-driving platform, Apple knew it would need it Powerful on-device AI processing. While the car handler It’s never overas Mark Gorman explains in his latest book Turn on the power Newsletter, it led to the development of the Neural Engine, the backbone of Apple’s on-device AI processing.

The neural engine first appeared with iPhone. In those early days, it was mainly used for computer vision, running FaceID, Animoji, and augmented reality features. But by laying the foundation for on-device AI processing, Apple has established itself as an early leader by bringing the Neural Engine to desktop PCs with technology. M series chips. While Apple’s efforts in AI software have lagged behind the rest of the industry, its hardware has been impressive. This is also what has allowed Apple to promote its privacy features, as less data is sent to the cloud.

Apple is making its AI hardware a cornerstone of its strategy moving forward. According to Gurman, the company is skipping the Pro, Max, and Ultra versions of the upcoming M6 chip. Instead, it’s accelerating development of the M7, which should arrive in the first half of 2027 with major upgrades to the neural engine. The M7 Ultra is expected to be the basis for a new server product from Apple as well, with support for up to 1.5TB of RAM.