The Apple Car Lives
Apple’s Project Titan has gone through a lot of ups and downs over the past six years. Today, a team at Reuters reports that the effort is still alive.
From the beginning, the project has focused on both autonomy and electrification. Reuters points to progress on the latter.
”It’s next level,” the person said of Apple’s battery technology. “Like the first time you saw the iPhone.”
Before that quote, the Reuters article does qualify this “person” as, “familiar with the companies plans.” Nonetheless, it’s amusing to read quote after quote attributed to “the person.” Apple takes secrecy seriously.
The article shares detail about “monocell” battery design that is beyond my expertise, but seems like progress.
Autonomy is less clear. Maybe Apple will build its own car. Maybe it will partner with an OEM.
“Sources have said they expect the company to rely on a manufacturing partner to build vehicles. And there is still a chance Apple will decide to reduce the scope of its efforts to an autonomous driving system that would be integrated with a car made by a traditional automaker.”
Maybe there will be many lidar sensors. Maybe there won’t?
Apple is targeting 2024 for a launch, but it might push back to 2025 because of the pandemic. Or (Reuters doesn’t speculate, but I will) because manufacturing self-driving cars is hard.
Apple has so much money I know not to ignore the trickle of news out of Project Titan. But it’s a trickle.
