Things went dark regarding the Apple Car (or Project Titan) effort for quite some time. But, as of late, the rumor mill has started to spin back to life. The latest report suggests we may be less than five years away from seeing the new effort from Apple’s big debut.
Apple’s a company that still makes things like iPhones, iPads, and very expensive headphones. But the company’s goals have reportedly veered towards a vehicle of some kind for quite some time now. There have been plenty of rumors swirling around about Project Titan/Apple Car, and today’s report suggests it will have at least one breakthrough feature.
According to a new report from Reuters, based on information gathered from unnamed sources, Apple is planning to debut the Apple Car sometime in 2024. To help with that, Apple will likely team up with a manufacturing partner of some kind, but there’s no information as to what the Apple Car might actually look like at that point.
Now, while the car itself will be what gathers most of the attention, it’s the feature inside making it tick that will really make it stand out. For instance, the report indicates that Apple will rely on a monocell battery, which may “radically” reduce the overall cost of batteries — and offer increased range for the car itself.
Manufacturing could be a sticking point for Apple as it tries to launch its first actual vehicle:
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 build vehicles. And there is still a chance Apple will decide to reduce the scope of its efforts to an autonomous driving system that would be integrated with a car made by a traditional automaker, rather than the iPhone maker selling an Apple-branded car, one of the people added.
Indeed, according to one source, the supply chain may be a problem in the future, even for Apple:
If there is one company on the planet that has the resources to do that, it’s probably Apple. But at the same time, it’s not a cellphone,” said a person who worked on Project Titan.
The report indicates that Apple, as of right now, is still planning on launching an Apple-branded car at some point in the future. However, things may change, and Apple could change course. And pandemic-related delays could push the debut of the project even further back.
The last major report of note for the Apple Car was in October of 2019. Things went quiet between then and December of this year, when it was reported that Apple’s AI lead John Giannandrea is now leading the project. And then, soon after that, it was reported that TSMC would be tapped by Apple to build self-driving car chips (a move that Tesla is believed to be doing as well).
If we have to wait until 2024 before the Apple Car is debuted (if it launches at all), the rumor mill is going to be a very interesting place for a long time.