Apple last month urged federal regulators to forego strict limits on testing of self-driving vehicles and indicated that the tech giant was "excited" about the possibilities of autonomous driving.
Steve Kenner, the company's director of product integrity, wrote the letter dated Nov. 22 to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in what Reuters reported was the company's most detailed statement to date of its ambitions related to self-driving cars.
The report followed months of speculation about Apple's secretive "Project Titan."
Reports in early 2015 suggested that Apple employed hundreds on an initiative to develop an electric vehicle and that the company was luring experts from tech, automotive and battery companies.
Technical issues and leadership conflicts, however, stalled the project, and recent reports indicated that Apple shifted its focus from a stand-alone vehicle to autonomous driving systems.
A report in October suggested that Apple set a late 2017 deadline for project leaders to demonstrate their technology to company higher-ups.
Kenner, however, wrote that Apple was "investing heavily" in machine learning and automation and was excited about their prospects "in many areas, including transportation."
He also echoed sentiments from other autonomous vehicle advocates, including tech rival Google, that self-driving cars could prevent millions of crashes, save thousands of lives and provide added freedom to those currently unable to drive.
"Executed properly under NHTSA's guidance, automated vehicles have the potential to greatly enhance the human experience," Kenner wrote, according to Reuters.
Kenner added that both established automakers and new producers "should be treated equally" by federal authorities.
The letter came just more than two months after transportation officials issued federal safety guidelines for the design, development and testing of self-driving vehicles.
Some safety advocates had called for formal regulations — a far more time-consuming process — while tech companies suggested that the proposal would stifle the industry.
