Apple’s plans for its autonomous car, known as Apple Car, are not going as expected. According to Bloombergthe company has delayed its launch againor — this time, two years longer than previously planned — and has agreed to limit some functions related to autonomous driving.
The aforementioned media affirms that Apple now plans that its autonomous and electric car will launch sometime in 2028. It is the second time that the Cupertino firm has delayed the launch of the Apple Car, as it was initially scheduled for 2025, and they later set 2026 as the year in which the first model would be officially announced.
According to several reports, The Apple vehicle has been in development since 2014. That is, 14 years will have passed since the company began working on this project, internally named Titan, until its official launch.
The Apple Car will have a lower level of autonomous driving than expected
The delay in the official announcement is not the only bad news related to the Apple Car. Bloomberg states that after several meetings with those in charge of the development of Apple’s electric and autonomous car, which includes Kevin Lynch, head of the project, and attended by Tim Cook, CEO of the company, it was agreed to limit self-driving technology to “Level 2+”. This means that the Apple Car will be able to stay centered in the lane autonomously and with adaptive cruise control at the same time.
It is a level twice lower than initially planned. Apple, specifically, I was hoping to include a level 4 autonomous driving. In this case, human intervention is not necessary for the vehicle to make the trip, as it is capable of knowing the traffic situation, defining the route, and more.
The meetings, as indicated by the aforementioned media, have also served for the board to put pressure on those responsible for the project throughout 2023.
Complications in the project
There are still many details to know about the Apple Car, but the latest information reveals that the vehicle will not be as futuristic or advanced as initially expected. During the first years of its development, in fact, The possibility was considered that the vehicle would not have steering wheels or pedals.; thus being completely autonomous. The tests, however, did not offer the results that the team in charge of the project expected. In fact, and according to a report, one of the vehicles that was carrying out a software test almost ran over a pedestrian who was crossing a zebra crossing.
To this, we must add changes that have considerably hindered the development of the Apple Car. Among them, the departure of Doug Field, one of the people most responsible for the project. Field left Apple to join Ford as director of advanced technology and embedded systems in the company’s autonomous driving area.
Meanwhile, and as indicated BloombergManzana has been spending “hundreds of millions of dollars a year” amid waves of layoffs with the aim of advancing the Titan project and having its autonomous car ready to compete with companies like Tesla, Ford, GMC or Rivian.