[AutonomousVehicles] Apple Self Driving Car Could Be Available in 2025

[Cornelius Butler]

Hi Everyone,
A self-driving car from Apple could be available as early as 2025. Article
Link and text is below.

Article Link:
https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/18/22789615/apple-self-driving-car-project-titan-custom-processor-ev

Article Text:

Apple reportedly wants to launch a self-driving EV in 2025 with a custom
chip

By Sean O'Kane at sokane1  Nov 18, 2021, 1:39pm EST

Apple has completed “much of the core work” on a new processor meant to
power its secretive autonomous electric car project known as Titan,
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports. The milestone comes as Apple is reportedly
now accelerating its timeline for the autonomous car it’s developing, with
a new target of launching it in just four years.

Apple’s own silicon team designed the chip, which Gurman says is the “most
advanced component” that’s been developed for the project so far. The
company is apparently getting ready to put the chip through its real-world
paces in its fleet of test vehicles in California and hopes to make a
vehicle with “stronger safeguards than what’s available from Tesla and
Waymo,” according to the report.

The goal now for Project Titan, after multiple pivots, is to create an
autonomous car that does not have a steering wheel. The interior would be
spacious and look more like the limousine-style seating arrangement that EV
startup Canoo has promoted in its electric van prototypes. Apple was at one
point in talks to acquire Canoo, as The Verge reported earlier this year,
and recently hired one of the startup’s co-founders. There would be a
large, iPad-style touchscreen display that will run a user interface
similar to iOS.

The business model is reportedly still undecided, though. Apple has
considered trying to create a self-driving fleet to compete with Uber,
Lyft, and Waymo (something Tesla has proposed but is still very far from
executing), but Gurman reports that the “more likely scenario” is that
Apple will sell the cars to individuals.

On the electric vehicle side of things, Apple is reportedly not looking to
develop a proprietary charging cable for the car. Instead, it wants to make
the vehicle compatible with the “combined charging system,” or CCS
standard, which would make it possible to charge the vehicle at most public
fast charging stations.

Of course, all of this comes after years of reported changes to the
project, which was started in 2014. Five different executives have run
Project Titan after Apple Watch lead Kevin Lynch took over earlier this
year. The refocusing and timeline shift reported by Bloomberg could be a
sign that there’s real progress being made with him at the helm, or it
could just become the newest footnote in whatever the project turns into
next.
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