Apple refused to launch an autonomous car. Instead, the company will focus on developing a more traditional vehicle. Bloomberg cites sources familiar with the situation.
The release of the car was tentatively postponed from 2025 to 2026. However, these are not all the changes in Project Titan. So, the managers realized that releasing a completely unmanned vehicle without a steering wheel and pedals is still too ambitious a task. Therefore, it will have the usual steering wheel and pedals.
The car will get a custom-built Apple chip with the power equivalent to “four high-end Mac chips,” whatever that means. I draw attention to this point because it is not very clear what precisely this sentence means: for example, the M1 Ultra is twice as powerful as the M1 Max, and about the hypothetical M2 Extreme, which will be used in the Mac Pro, they say that it will be two united by one bus of the M2 Ultra chip.
That’s why I’m wondering: four times more powerful than what chip will the “stone” be installed in the Apple car? Unclear. But it is reported that the chip is almost ready for production. Here, too, the question is: why should he be prepared for production in 2022-2023 when the car will be launched only in 2026?
Despite the rejection of a full-fledged autopilot, the Apple car will receive a whole set of lidars, cameras, and various sensors. With their help, the car can get an idea of the lane and the surrounding people and objects. The car will be connected to a particular cloud for data processing using artificial intelligence. Apple is also thinking about creating a command center that will help drivers and be able to take control in the event of an emergency.
Also, the car will still receive autopilot. With it, drivers can watch movies and perform work tasks. However, according to the Bloomberg text, this functionality will be limited to freeways only. The driver will have to take control when entering the city and in bad weather. The autopilot will probably only work in North America. However, over time, the autopilot functions can be expanded to more countries, and it will be allowed into the city.
Such restrictions are related to the low mileage of Apple drones and related problems, which I wrote about earlier:
It seems that Apple is gradually coming to a solution to problems with staff turnover. The “veterans” of the company are at the head. So, now the head of Project Titan is the head of the department of artificial intelligence and machine learning, John Giannandrea. Next to him stands Kevin Lynch, known as one of the key people in the Apple Watch project.
Apple hopes that the car for consumers will cost less than $100,000. True, this is in the United States. And what price will be outside the States, and whether this car will be at all, time will tell.