Apple's self-driving car project keeps moving with Drive.ai

Drive.ai was known for its brightly colored autonomous vans, so it's somewhat ironic that the secretive and elusive Apple self-driving car division acquired the brand.

After murmurs earlier this month, Project Titan (as Apple's autonomous car team is known) is moving along with its so-called "acqui-hire" of Mountain View-based Drive.ai.

Drive.ai operated self-driving shuttles in Texas for the past year and raised $77 million since 2015, according to its Crunchbase listing. In March, its eight-month free shuttle pilot in Frisco, Texas ended and its four vehicles went to Arlington, Texas for a separate free service. The seven Drive.ai vans operating in Arlington were pulled off the road at the end of May.

At the end of the Frisco pilot, Drive.ai reported 5,000 riders used the service's bright orange and blue Nissan NV200 vans. The Arlington pilot saw 760 autonomous trips for 1,419 riders between August and May, totaling 440 self-driven miles. The Drive.ai blog is now offline and the homepage hasn't changed in months. It still lists Arlington as an operating pilot.

Bloomberg and The Information reported the acquisition is a move for Apple to land more engineers and autonomous vehicle talent. Drive.ai has reportedly been looking for a buyer for the past few months. Apple confirmed the deal Wednesday. Drive.ai never responded to requests for comment.

In filings with a state employment agency, the company reported 90 job losses with its permanent closure, as the San Francisco Chronicle first reported Tuesday.

Clues like testing rooms and patent filings indicate that Apple's Project Titan is pushing through despite layoffs and changes. It might not be an Apple car, but eventually there could be an Apple-powered self-driving car.