Apple Inc is continuing to move forward with self-driving car technology and is targeting 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle that could include its own breakthrough battery technology, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The iPhone maker’s automotive efforts, referred to as Project Titan, have proceeded unevenly since 2021 if this started to create its very own vehicle from scratch. At some point, Apple drew back your time and effort to focus on software and reassessed its goals. Doug Field, an Apple veteran who had worked at Tesla, returned to oversee the work in 2021 and let go 190 people from the team in 2021.
Since then, Apple has progressed enough that it now aims to construct a vehicle for consumers, two people familiar with the effort said, asking not to be named because Apple’s plans aren't public. Apple’s goal of creating a personal vehicle for that mass market contrasts with rivals for example Alphabet Inc’s Waymo, that has built robo-taxis to carry passengers for any driverless ride-hailing service.
Central to Apple’s strategy is a brand new battery design that may “radically” lessen the cost of batteries and boost the vehicle’s range, according to a third individual who has witnessed Apple’s battery design.
Apple declined to comment on its plans or future products.
Making an automobile represents a logistics challenge even for Apple, a business with deep pockets which makes vast sums of electronics products every year with parts from around the globe, but has never made a car. It took Elon Musk’s Tesla 17 years before it finally turned a sustained profit making cars.
“If there is one company on the planet that has the time to achieve that, it’s probably Apple. But at the same time, it’s not a cellphone,” said an individual who worked on Project Titan.
It remains unclear who would assemble an Apple-branded car, but sources have said they expect the company to rely on a manufacturing partner to construct vehicles. And there is still an opportunity Apple will choose to lessen the scope of their efforts to an autonomous driving system that might be integrated with a car produced by a traditional automaker, rather than the iPhone maker selling an Apple-branded car, one of the people added.
Two people with understanding of Apple’s plans warned pandemic-related delays could push the beginning of production into 2025 or beyond.
Apple will quickly tap outside partners for elements of the machine, including lidar sensors, which help self-driving cars obtain a three-dimensional look at the road, a couple familiar with the company’s plans said.
Apple’s car might feature multiple lidar sensors for scanning different distances, someone else said. Some sensors could be derived from Apple’s internally developed lidar units, that person said. Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro and iPad Pro models released this season both feature lidar sensors.
Reuters had previously reported that Apple had held talks with potential lidar suppliers, but it seemed to be examining building its very own sensor.
As for the car‘s battery, Apple intends to make use of a unique “monocell” design that bulks in the individual cells in the battery and frees up space inside the battery power by eliminating pouches and modules that hold battery materials, one of the people said.
Apple’s design means that more active material could be packed within the battery, giving the car a potentially longer range. Apple is also examining a chemistry for that battery called LFP, or lithium iron phosphate, the individual said, that is inherently not as likely to overheat and is thus safer than other types of lithium-ion batteries.
\”It's next stage,” the individual said of Apple’s battery technology. “Like the first time you saw the iPhone.”
Apple had previously engaged Magna International Inc in talks about manufacturing a car, but the talks petered out as Apple’s plans became unclear, a person acquainted with those previous efforts said. Magna didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
To turn a profit, automotive contract manufacturers often request volumes that could pose challenging even to Apple, which may be considered a newcomer to the automotive market.
“In order to possess a viable assembly plant, you need 100,000 vehicles annually, with more volume in the future,” the person said.
