According to reports, one of the world’s largest conglomerates, Apple Inc., has decided to scale back on its ambitious plans for an Apple Car. The concept design for the self-driving car has not really been transferred into reality. Furthermore, the company has actually postponed the launch date of the car by about a year- to 2026 now. The car project has been referred to as Titan.
Unfortunately, it has been in a state of limbo for the last several months. This has been the case since most of the executives of this company have been struggling to fully visualize a completely autonomous vehicle. As it turns out, scientists and developers are currently trying to find a way where a car without pedals or steering wheels would actually be completely feasible with the current strands in technology. [1]
The Apple Car Will Now Be Launched in 2026
The company has shifted from its idealistic stance. Now, it has been planning a far less ambitious design for the concept car. The new Apple Car, when released, will definitely include pedals and steering wheels. Interestingly, it would only support full autonomous capabilities on highways. This information was provided by people who asked to be anonymous. These new developments do underscore the challenge that the company is facing in pushing a completely new product category.
The company has also faced new issues while taking on technological obstacles that have already alienated some of the biggest companies in the world. This highly covert project had been in the works for a number of years. It was actually meant to provide the giant company with yet another source of revenue. Now, it needs to be seen if this new venture sees the light of day. And, if it does, if it will actually manage to break even.
Apple is also currently planning to develop another Apple Car variant. This would let the driver conduct other tasks- which could be as trivial as watching a movie and as significant as conducting business deals- when they are being driven on a freeway through an automated driving system. The passengers in the vehicle would have ample time to switch over to manual control if something goes amiss. Of course, the car would alert them in time. For those wondering where they might have heard such an idea- this is showcased heavily in the web series, Reboot. Apple has already discussed the probability of launching this feature in North America initially. They would then improve and constantly expand over a period of time.
With The Apple Shares Taking Major Hits, It Was Prudent To Delay The Car
The shares of Apple have been hit thoroughly this year, with it going down by 2% on Tuesday. After that, the company further dipped to a session low after Bloomberg News shed light on the changes in the plans regarding the Apple Car. The company had already declined by 19% this year. But fortunately, that is still quite a better sight than most of the stocks that are present in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index.
The previous version of the Apple car has always been to offer autonomy on the 5th level. This level is the pinnacle of self-driving technology, something no automaker over the years has been able to attain. The current plan the company is vying for is considered to be on a scale below that. The reason simply being the limited scope available. [2]
This seems to be the latest shift in the strategy that the team behind the Apple Car has been formulating over the years. The team itself has gone through several turnovers in the executive ranks ever since it was conceived a decade ago. The current leader of the team, Kevin Lynch, has sworn to bring in more stability as well as a focus on practical goals. This follows multiple years of changes in priority and layoffs to the staff.
Lynch has also been in charge of the operating system and health software for the Apple Watch. He took over at the end of last year. He had initially asked the team to start working on the concept car- which comes under the Special Projects Group- as he wanted to develop a fully autonomous car by 2025. But recently, he has started dialing back on these expectations- but the goal remains the same. He still wants to ensure that such a product actually becomes a reality and hits the market.
The Apple Car Will Feature A Computer Onboard
The main component behind the company’s technology is an extremely powerful computer system, which has been codenamed Denali. The name comes from the tallest mountain peak in North America. The performance of this processor when built into an Apple Car will be similar to around four high-end Mac chips combined. The processor and the custom set of arrays are being developed by the silicon engineering group of the company.
As it turns out, the chip has already reached quite an advanced state. Moreover, it is already stated to be in a position of being ready for production. But, it does look like the parent company will be scaling it down to lower the costs of the vehicle. The technology of having a computer on the car itself to handle most of the automated tasks is quite similar to approaches that have been used by other carmakers- which include Tesla Inc. But this company has plans for differing from the conventional technology.
The Apple Car, as per rumors, will be utilizing a combination of both radar and lidar sensors, along with multiple cameras. The setup will be helping the car determine the location, check out the driving lanes, and even provide an assessment as to how far the car is from other people and objects. Tesla has been known to only use cameras- while Waymo, from Alphabet Inc., has plans of using just a combination.
The Design Isn’t Ready yet- But Should be By 2023
Along with the onboard hardware, the system will also be bringing in a cloud-based component for some AI processing. Apple will be heavily relying on Amazon Web Services for hosting. This could be costing the maker of iPhones around $125 million every year. But this is just a sliver of the $1 billion that the company is actually planning on spending on the car project annually.
The parent company has also explored the idea of a remote command center. This center would be assisting the drivers and control the Apple Cars during emergencies. The company will also discuss a bunch of offers with regard to the insurance program to potential customers. Initially, the Apple Car had a selling price of more than $120,000.
But the parent company has now been aiming at a sum that could potentially be less than $100,000. This, if compared, will be putting it in the same price range as the EQS from Mercedes-Benz, as well as the entry-level version of the Model S from Tesla. But for those actually looking for a concept image of the Apple Car, the company hasn’t yet settled on a single design. Interestingly, the company has plans of bringing out the design by next year and set up the features by the end of 2024.
Sources
- “Apple Scales Back Self-Driving Car and Delays Debut Until 2026.” Bloomberg. Mark Gurman. December 6, 2022.
- “Apple to Charge Under $100,000 for Apple Car, Launch Planned for 2026.” Macrumors. Juli Clover. December 6, 2022.