Apple has been one of the pioneers in the tech industry for nearly half a century. The tech company that majorly focuses on consumer products like its Macbook, iPhone, or iPad has shown plans to launch a fully autonomous, self-driving car by 2025. In 2014, there was news that Apple was planning on entering the automobile market with the advent of “Project Titan” which saw more than 1000 engineers from Apple coming together to develop an electric vehicle.
Since 2016, there were rumors that this plan has been shelved, however, in 2020 Apple had obtained a self-driving car testing permit which put the plan back on track. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook even came forward and confirmed that the company is working in the field of self-driving car software. It is rare for Apple to confirm any upcoming projects, but due to all the regulations in the automobile sector, there had to be some news.
In 2021, it is confirmed that Apple is working towards developing a fully-autonomous electric car that won’t require any user input and not even include a steering wheel and pedals. The project has put a deadline of 2025 on the project, however, developing a fully-autonomous car may take more time and cause delays. The car will include the most advanced silicon from Apple ever, including a neural engine capable of taking on such a difficult AI task.
Apple Has Started Testing Out Its Software On Lexus SUVs
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Apple’s project for developing a fully-autonomous electric car will be headed by their AI and machine learning chief John Giannandrea and also includes the man credited for developing Apple Watch, Kevin Lynch. In the starting stages, the company was deciding on whether to develop a fully-autonomous self-driving car with no steering wheel and pedals or a model with limited self-driving abilities similar to a Tesla. However, Kevin Lynch was pushing for a fully-autonomous self-driving electric vehicle that doesn’t need any human intervention.
Now, there have been many sightings of Apple testing out its self-driving software with Lexus SUVs on the roads of California. The project aims to make an electric car that is more advanced than any of its competitors and will be marketed as a higher-end model than your everyday electric cars. Apple also plans to design the interior around complete self-driving abilities and may include passengers sitting facing each other like in a limousine. According to sources close to the company, they are close to reaching a key milestone in the project, with most of the work almost done on the processor Apple is planning to ship with the first generation of the car.
Hyundai Seems To Be In The Lead For Manufacturing
Since Apple won’t be manufacturing the cars itself, they are set to partner up with an automobile company and there have been talks between Apple and Hyundai among others. The first generation car is set to be based upon Hyundai’s E-GMP Electric Vehicle platform, but it depends on whether Apple will partner up with Hyundai.
One of the major things about this whole project is that this car will be a part of the Apple ecosystem and users will be able to enjoy deep integration with other devices like iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Apple has begun road tests for its software and has about 69 Lexus SUVs with the self-driving tech. As a fully-autonomous self-driving car, safety is a major concern for its end-users and Apple themselves, which is why the software will include layers of safety protocols. The engineers at Apple are designing the car in a way that will be safer than existing electric cars, with redundant software precautions that will prevent any mishap. This will also include multiple backups to kick in, thus preventing any contingency of an accident. Keeping in mind the safety of its passengers, it may not be possible for Apple to remove the steering wheel.
A Revolutionary Entry In The EV Market
Apple should take advantage of the Combined Charging System that is used by most mainstream electric vehicle producing companies like Mercedes, BMW, Tesla, etc. The CCS charging standard will enable Apple car users to use the already existing charging stations. Apple is also looking to renovate the battery by using a mono cell design that makes the individual battery cells bulkier and free up space inside the battery pack by reducing its modules and pouches. Apple is expecting this to reduce the cost of producing batteries while enhancing range.
Apple is looking to reduce the size of LIDAR sensors to make them more affordable and widely available to use in mass-manufactured cars. The company has held talks with several LIDAR producers and hopes to come up with a revolutionary design that would make it suitable for fully-autonomous cars. Apple’s entry into the EV market will surely encourage other companies to come up with more creative solutions, thus subsequently profiting the customers. However, it is fair to assume that developing a fully-autonomous self-driving car may take Apple more time and there will be some delays in its launch.
Apple has done some miracles in the past decade in innovating its processors in iPhones and Macbooks and is credited with producing some of the most efficient processors in the market. Let’s hope that Kevin Lynch, who is the man behind the Apple Watch, does the same wonders with this project.