We’ve been teased with the idea of ‘Project Titan’, Apple’s self-driving car, for a number of years. While Apple never publicly laid out its plans, it was clear that some kind of vehicle was in the works for the tech giant.
Now, a report by Reuters confirms that Apple is working on self-driving car technology. Unlike other autonomous cars, Apple plans to make something that consumers will be able to drive, too. This is very different to Google’s Waymo, which is being developed for vehicle sharing and public transport needs, rather than driving.
Back in 2015, the Apple car was due to be with us by 2019 or 2020, which, of course, never happened. New reports suggest that we could see the Project Titan car by 2024 or 2025, instead.
Of course, without any definitive statement from Apple, it’s still unclear whether Project Titan is an entire car, or if Apple will just create self-driving systems for other manufacturers. What we do know, however, is that the car will feature innovative new battery technology that will not only increase range but it should drive down costs, too.
The most prominent part of the design of this car will be its self-driving systems, which Apple has already been testing in California — with mixed success.
There’s still a lot of work to be done on Apple’s self-driving systems but confirmation that it’s going ahead is good news for a lot of people. In fact, Hyundai’s share price jumped 20% after it said it’d be working with Apple on an electric car — a statement that it later backtracked on and updated by removing the mention of Apple.
Whether or not we’ll see an Apple car in 2024 or 2025 remains to be seen. But it could mark a very important point in the development of electric vehicles where tech companies become automotive manufacturers.
