Apple Inc. has decided to join forces with Hertz Global Holding Inc. in order to run tests on a small fleet of the car rental company’s autonomous vehicles.
As part of the deal made between Apple and Hertz, the car rental company has agreed to lease the technology giant six of its vehicles for autonomous software testing. According to documents released by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Hertz’s Donlen fleet-management unit has agreed to provide Apple with Lexus RX450h sport utility vehicles.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been adamant about the importance of incorporating self-driving technology, calling it the “mother of all A.I. projects.” In a previous interview with Bloomberg, Cook confirmed that the technology company is directing its focus toward developing autonomous technology, expressing that, “it’s a core technology that we view as very important.”
The news of Apple and Hertz’s partnership comes after the announced partnership of Alphabet Inc. and Avis Budget Group Inc., which plan to tackle the fast-growing world of autonomous technology together as well.
In the deal between Avis and Alphabet, Avis agreed to manage Waymo‘s autonomous car fleet in Phoenix as well as provide storage and maintenance services, as needed.
Half a dozen vehicles have been testing Apple’s driverless technology on public roads around the San Francisco Bay area for a little over a year.
Apple’s efforts toward making self-driving cars have been codenamed Project Titan since last year, when the company stopped working on its own car to develop a self-driving A.I. that could be embedded into other vehicles. When asked whether or not Apple had plans to build its own driverless car in the future, Cook declined to comment.
“‘We’re not really saying from a product point of view what we will do,” Cook said.
Meanwhile, Hertz’s stock had dropped by more than 75 percent over the past 12 months, while the company was suffering from failing revenue and profit. In fact, many investors expressed concern over the future of car rental companies, given the growth of self-driving cars and ride-hailing services, such as Uber and Lyft. However, Hertz shares experienced a small boost soon after Alphabet and Avis announced their partnership. Furthermore, once Hertz and Apple made their own collaboration public news on June 26, Hertz’s shares shot up by a whopping 13 percent, their biggest increase since July 2015.
While Hertz’s shares were at $10.82 amidst the news spreading, shares of Apple were slightly down.