Popular YouTuber Mark Rober Working on VR Tech for Self-Driving Cars for Apple

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 27 Jun 2018

Popular YouTuber Mark Rober, known for his science videos, is quietly working as an engineer for Apple on some secret special projects. The YouTuber’s work for Apple includes AR/VR projects, with onboard VR entertainment for self-driving cars being a particular focus.

Rober has over 3.4 million YouTube followers, and he has even made guest appearances on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.”

As per his LinkedIn profile, he switched his job in the summer of 2015 where he has been working as a product design engineer. The YouTuber confirmed this in a Reddit AmA in 2017 where he mentioned that he was working for “a larget tech company in the Bay Area” but could not disclose their name as he was not allowed to do so. As for his work there, he revealed that he works on the team “formulating products that haven’t been released.”

Rober’s name does appear as the primary inventor in a couple of patent applications from Apple related to AR/VR. The first one filed in March is related to “immersive virtual display,” while the other one is related to “augmented virtual display.” They both describe AR/VR technologies in self-driving cars which could be used by passengers who don’t need to actively pay attention to the road and traffic conditions. The patent applications envision Apple using data from the vehicle into its VR experience.

“Embodiments of the VR system may provide enhanced immersive virtual experiences to passengers in moving vehicles that are not achievable in conventional stationary VR systems. Integrating the VR system with a vehicle in motion provides opportunities for enhancing virtual experiences that are not available while sitting in a room using a stationary simulator or wearing a (VR headset). For example, accelerations and motions in a virtual experience can be matched to or enhanced by accelerations and motions of the vehicle, and thus do not have to be simulated using gravity vectors as in a stationary simulator.”

None of this really means that Apple is working on a self-driving car due for release in the near future. Being a tech company, Apple has to dabble and research in various fields. As for AR/VR, the company is very bullish on its prospect which is why it is dedicating a lot of its resources towards it.

[Via Variety]