Technology
Apple plans to build its first vehicle in 2024, reports Reuters.
Apple seems to be seriously looking at making a car again. Reuters notes that Apple is pursuing the manufacture of a passenger car by 2024, as well as the creation of self-driving systems and a "break-through battery technology." The article is unclear about how it all fits together—not it's obvious that all of this technology is going into the first passenger vehicle that Apple aims to make—but it suggests that Apple is contemplating vehicle manufacturing after the previous one.
There have been reports that Apple is building a car back in 2015. However, in 2016, the concept was dramatically scaled down, with the production of a complete car being abandoned with Apple's team focused on providing applications that could be sold to car makers, according to rumors at the time. About 200 employees were laid off by Apple's car team just last year.
Now it appears like Apple has revived its emphasis on creating a real vehicle—though there is a lot of doubt about when (and even if) that's going to happen. Reuters says that 2024 is the production date for an Apple-made passenger car, but it could be moved back "to or beyond 2025" due to pandemic delays. There is also a possibility that Apple might scale its efforts back to autonomous driving technologies, the study warns.
The study notes that Apple depends on third parties to supply certain components of its self-driving technologies, including its LIDAR devices. Apple's battery technology is claimed to focus on a "monocell" configuration that allows more power to fit into the total battery by not separating it into separate cells. Reuters notes that it will make for a "potentially longer range" and lower costs.
Apple declined to comment.
If Apple wants to develop a self-driving vehicle, it will also face regulatory barriers before it can reach the track.
There are no true self-driving vehicles available today, but certain cars, such as those from Tesla, provide a degree of automated driver assistance in driving in some conditions.
Earlier this month, Apple turned over management of its self-driving car initiative to John Giannandrea, president of AI. Giannandrea was brought on board in 2018 to work on Siri, having previously worked for Google as head of search and artificial intelligence.
Yesterday, another article from the Taiwan Economic Daily News said that an Apple-made car could be launched in what would be a stunningly optimistic timeline, if real, as soon as 2021. Reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo expected the introduction of a car between 2023 and 2025, according to MacRumors, back in 2018. Generally, though, the perception has been that Apple has been working on self-driving technologies for a number of years rather than on the development of an actual Apple-branded car.
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