Apple is Rumored to be Buying a Self-Driving Startup

Wall Street learned this week that Apple is reportedly planning to acquire Drive.ai, a Silicon Valley start up that is involved in self driving and artificial intelligence software.

According to a report from The Information this week citing two sources briefed on the matter, the acquisition with Apple is in process and it could be an acqui-hire that allows Apple to keep many of Drive.ai’s engineers.

Drive.ai is headquartered in Mountain View, California and uses artificial intelligence to make self-driving systems for cars. The company’s retrofit kits can be used to add self-driving capabilities to existing commercial and business vehicles.

Drive.ai is the second company to remove the safety driver from its autonomous vehicles. To date, the company has raised approximately $77 million in funding and was valued at $200 million two years ago.

The company also makes self-driving shuttles that are currently being tested in Texas and it is building out an intelligent communications system that allow self-driving vehicles to communicate with human drivers as well as pedestrians.

According to insiders, the self-driving start up had been looking for a buyer since February. If the acquisition is successful, Apple stands to gain dozens of engineers from the firm, said The Information.

Apple declined to comment on the report.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and have not been compensated for this article.