Newest In The Self-driving Cars Mix- Rental Companies

With numerous talks about how autonomous vehicles are going to transform the transportation industry, rental car companies are making sure they don’t lag behind.

- Sanskriti Shukla

It’s official! Rental car companies are the new entrants in the driveless car race.

Apple will lease six cars from Hertz Global Holdings to test its long-anticipated autonomous driving software. Apple CEO Tim Cook has called self-driving cars the “mother of all AI projects”. “We’re focusing on autonomous systems,” Cook told Bloomberg in an interview. This news has made a buzz in the market and has further given impetus to the drive-less technology.

Another project which has kept up with this trend is the agreement between Waymo, Google’s self-driving unit, and Avis. The two technology giants have partnered with rental car fleets, making the rental car companies a part of the autonomous vehicle industry.

Documents released by California Department of Motor Vehicles state that Apple would be leasing Lexus RX450h sport-utility vehicles from Hertz’s Donlen fleet-management unit. The rental car firm will service and store Waymo’s Chrysler Pacifica minivans in Phoenix, where Waymo is testing a ride-sharing service with volunteer members of the public.