In February this year, we learned that after more than a decade of work, Project Titan – the Apple Car effort was officially canceled. Naturally, details have been sparse around the topic as it was a secret project. But today an interesting detail has surfaced about how Apple is dismantling the project.
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After slimming its autonomous vehicle program in early 2023, Apple is adding back test drivers. Here’s how Apple’s self-driving car testing efforts look as it begins 2024 – amid the Apple Car project remaining at a stand-still.
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One of the top executives working on Apple’s Project Titan self-driving car team is being sued by the SEC. Bloomberg reports that SEC is suing Ulrich Kranz “for allegedly breaking securities rules” during his time as CEO at the electric car startup Canoo.
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At the start of 2023, Apple had its largest staff ever of drivers registered to test its autonomous vehicles in California. Then in April, Apple cut the team back significantly. Now in the latest update on Apple’s autonomous vehicle efforts, the program has returned to adding drivers.
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The United States Department of Justice has announced formal charges against a former Apple engineer. As reported by CNBC, Weibao Wang has been accused of stealing Apple’s autonomous driving technology for a Chinese self-driving car startup. Wang worked at Apple from 2016 to 2018 and had “broad access” to databases to “entire autonomy source code” at the company.
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At the beginning of the year, Apple hit a high point with 201 drivers registered for its autonomous vehicle testing. Now data from the California DMV shows that Apple has made a significant staffing change by eliminating 56 drivers from the pilot program.
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Over the last couple of years, we’ve heard different estimates of when Apple Car might finally make it to market which have ranged from 2024 to 2028. Now the latest report predicts a debut in 2026 with a custom Apple Silicon chip, no self-driving, and a price tag under $100,000.
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Apple is continuing to slowly expand its autonomous vehicle testing program in California. According to new data published by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Apple now has 15 new drivers registered to its crew. The number of self-driving vehicles, however, remains the same at 69 vehicles.
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When will Apple unveil its car? That’s the question customers have been asking for years. With executives leaving Project Titan and Apple having to rearrange the team over and over, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the company has set a date to rearrange its car team yet again.
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Apple Car is, at least, a few years away from being introduced. While Project Titan is surrounded by controversies, top executives leaving, and complete turnovers on what the Apple Car will ultimately be, a survey indicated that US customers are more interested in buying a car from the Cupertino company rather than buying a new Ford or Tesla.
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The Apple Car – or Project Titan – is full of comings and goings. While previous reports show the company is struggling to find a direction in the automobile industry, a report highlights how Apple is pushing to enter this business in the past 20 years.
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Apple is continuing to slowly expand its autonomous vehicle testing program in California. According to new data published by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Apple now has 10 new drivers registered to its crew. The number of self-driving vehicles, however, remains the same at 69 vehicles.
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This past summer we learned that Apple was in talks with China’s CATL and BYD to supply battery packs for its electric vehicle. But now it appears the negotiations have stalled as Apple allegedly wants the batteries to be made in the US as well as an exclusive manufacturing operation.
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Apple posted a new job opening over the weekend aimed to bolster its autonomous, electric vehicle efforts. Work on Apple Car has seen some challenges recently with the company losing its Project Titan VP, Doug Field. However, the work continues on as Apple looks for a Radar Test Engineer.
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Apple Car rumors have really heated up this year with a variety of predictions pointing to production possibly starting as soon as 2024 for an actual vehicle. And amid Apple working to step into a whole new industry, the company has hired two more veteran engineers, this time from Mercedes.
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As we’ve been hearing more rumors about the “Apple Car” in recent weeks, it seems that Apple is indeed in talks with automakers to produce its first electric car. Following a report from the Korean website Hankyung, Hyundai confirmed that it’s having early discussions with Apple about producing its new car.
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A new report from Bloomberg today offers new details on Apple’s ongoing efforts to build a self-driving electric car. According to the report, Apple has a “small team” working on Apple Car, but a release is likely at least five to seven years away. The Apple Car team has also added even more former Tesla executives, the report says.
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A sketchy report from Digitimes today claims that Apple is trudging ahead with work on its self-driving car project. The report says that Apple is working with TSMC on self-driving chips and exploring the possibility of some sort of factories in the United States.
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A new report from Bloomberg today details that Apple has shifted the leadership of its self-driving car project to John Giannandrea, its senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy. According to the report, “hundreds of engineers” from Project Titan have shifted to the artificial intelligence and machine learning group.
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Apple has made a notable hire this month with a storied career in the automative industry. As first reported by Bloomberg, Steve MacManus has joined Apple as a “Senior Director” working out of Apple Park in Cupertino.
Update: Apple has confirmed to Axios that it has acquired Drive.ai. In the process, it has hired dozens of self-driving engineers, most of which will work on engineering and product design.
According to a new report from the San Francisco Chronicle, Apple has hired a “handful” of hardware and software engineers from self-driving car startup Drive.ai – which is planning to close its doors later this week.
An unconfirmed report of Apple buying Drive.ai suggests the Cupertino company may be primarily interested in acquiring engineers from the self-driving startup.
However, a statement by Apple suggests that the deal is not certain …
Throughout the course of 2018, Apple’s filings with the California DMV showed a steady increase in the number of self-driving cars it had on the road. This month, however, Apple has reported its first ever drop in autonomous cars.
According to Reuters, Apple is in talks with several suppliers of LIDAR sensors, intended to be used in the Apple Car self driving project. Whilst it is still unclear if Apple intends to release an actual car, the company is clearly invested in developing the software and hardware components for autonomous vehicles.
Apple reportedly wants suppliers to make lidar sensors that are ‘cheaper, smaller, and more easily mass produced’ than what is currently available. Reuters also says that Apple is designing its own lidar array whilst evaluating offerings from third-parties.
