American tech giant Apple has just decided to postpone the launch of its first electric vehicle offering by two years to 2028, Bloomberg reports, citing people with knowledge of the project.
The plan changes reportedly occurred after board meetings, including Apple CEO Tim Cook and project head Kevin Lynch.
Plan changes
Apple has apparently downgraded the initially planned design of its inaugural electric vehicle model, codenamed “Project Titan.”
According to the report, the tech giant now aims to equip the Apple car with a “Level 2+” autonomous driving system.
It marks a significant pivot for the company, considering its original plans for a more advanced “Level 4” technology.
In effect, the plan changes prompted the company to push back the launch date of the Apple car to 2028 after previously delaying it to 2026.
So what?
As mentioned, the highly awaited Apple car will arrive with only a Level 2+ autonomous driving system. Therefore, it will simultaneously be capable of autonomous lane centering and adaptive cruise control.
It indicates a major downgrade from Level 4 technology, which enables the system to drive the car autonomously under limited conditions.
“The prior design for the vehicle called for a system that wouldn’t require human intervention on highways in approved parts of North America and could operate under most conditions. The more basic Level 2+ plan would require drivers to pay attention to the road and take over at any time — similar to the current standard Autopilot feature on Tesla’s EVs.”
Bloomberg
Nonetheless, Apple sees this change in strategy as a pivotal moment. For them, it is a matter of actually delivering the car to the market with less ambitious features or reconsidering the entire project when it fails to meet their initially high targets.
Apple will still work to upgrade the car to a Level 4 autonomous driving system after the initial launch.
What’s currently known about the Project Titan?
Apple has been developing the electric vehicle model since 2014 with an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars for R&D efforts, according to Forbes. However, in the past ten years, the company omitted to disclose more specific details of the car, such as name, key specifications, and development progress.
As of late 2022, the Apple car was in the pre-prototype phase. Despite this, the project struggled with various challenges, such as reorganization, strategic changes, hiring freezes, delays, and layoffs.
Now, it seems that the Apple car is truly just a couple of years away with the company’s efforts to downgrade the design for the initial launch. Nonetheless, Apple will still actively pursue the car’s Level 4 autonomous driving prospects.
It would be exciting to see Apple electric cars driving on the road, potentially challenging the current dominance of industry leader Tesla in the US market. However, the Musk-led company’s continuous efforts to reach full autonomy may push the Apple car behind as it only offers a Level 2 autonomous driving system.
