Apple is currently determined to ship an electric car that can drive its passengers around within the next four years, according to reporting from Bloomberg. The latest report emphasizes both the features and pacing set by current leadership over the project at Apple.
Apple’s so-called Project Titan effort to bring an electric car to market has been a years-long focus that has shown signs of evaporating before a product ever comes to market. The current status, based on this reporting, may be the most optimistic yet that actual hardware could reach consumers in this decade.
Apple Inc. is pushing to accelerate development of its electric car and is refocusing the project around full self-driving capabilities, according to people familiar with the matter, aiming to solve a technical challenge that has bedeviled the auto industry.
The latest report emphasizes the current determination by Apple under leadership from Apple Watch technology lead Kevin Lynch to bring a fully autonomous car to market as soon as 2025.
Apple is internally targeting a launch of its self-driving car in four years, faster than the five- to seven-year timeline that some engineers had been planning for earlier this year. But the timing is fluid, and hitting that 2025 target is dependent on the company’s ability to complete the self-driving system – an ambitious task on that schedule.
Bloomberg highlights that Lynch’s direction for Apple Car is not to simply match existing electric vehicles with self-driving features, but to leapfrog the EV market with a vehicle that can truly drive itself and its passengers.
For the past several years, Apple’s car team had explored two simultaneous paths: creating a model with limited self-driving capabilities focused on steering and acceleration – similar to most current cars from Tesla Inc. – or a version with full self-driving ability that doesn’t require human intervention.
Under the effort’s new leader – Apple Watch software executive Kevin Lynch – engineers are now concentrating on the second option. Lynch is pushing for a car with a full self-driving system in the first version, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private.
Apple’s ambitions aside, the Project Titan storyline has been one that spans both years and leadership as chronicled thus far.
Even the most optimistic product reveal in 2025 would follow a decade of effort by the iPhone maker — all while existing automakers including and especially Tesla build experience with shipping products.
As for what has the Project Titan team so optimistic now may be something that is at the heart of Apple’s modern computer success: a processor breakthrough.
Recently, the company reached a key milestone in developing the car’s underlying self-driving system, people familiar with the situation said. Apple believes it has completed much of the core work on the processor it intends to eventually ship in the first generation of the car.
Bloomberg reports that its Apple’s neural engine processing advancements that give strength to the company’s efforts at actually pulling off self-driving features in an electric vehicle.
Related:
- Apple adds more drivers to its autonomous car fleet; number of cars remains at 69
- Bloomberg: Kevin Lynch tapped to lead Apple Car project in latest shakeup
- Bloomberg: Apple self-driving car leadership shifts to AI boss as Bob Mansfield ‘fully’ retires
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Author: Zac Hall
Source: Electrek
