Apple Car Reportedly Delayed to 2028, Autonomous Driving Scaled Back

The Apple Car project has been scaled back to Level 2+ autonomy as opposed to its previous target of Level 4, as per a report by Bloomberg. The story also adds that Apple is now not aiming for a launch before 2028, whereas the target was thought to be 2026. The new report also claims that the Apple board has pressured Tim Cook to either commercialise Project Titan or axe it completely. With the plans scaled down, the project is significantly more achievable, but the company knows it risks being a 'me-too' product.

The electric autonomous car project, which has been underway since at least 2015, has has a tumultuous history, as per various leaks and rumours. Since 2021, it has reportedly been managed by Apple Watch software chief Kevin Lynch, the former Adobe CTO.

According to early reports, Apple had been envisioning a car without a steering wheel, but it now appears that the Cupertino-based company is abandoning this plan. Under Lynch's leadership, the current plan is to launch a scaled-down autonomous Level 2+ vehicle, aligning with offerings from brands like Tesla.

Internally codenamed Project Titan at Apple, the original plans were for Level 4 autonomy, which is full automation with the driver only taking over in rare instances, whereas Level 2+ only refers to advanced driver assistance and still requires the driver's full attention.

Apple CEO Tim Cook had stated in 2017 that the company's ambitions for autonomy extend beyond cars, but it remains to be seen what that might mean in terms of actual products or services. In 2019, the company acqui-hired the team behind startup Drive.ai, which had been testing autonomous shuttles in Texas. At the time, Apple was said to have had a fleet of over 66 Lexus SUVs modified with cameras, LiDAR and radar sensors being tested in and around the San Francisco Bay Area.

Apple has faced additional challenges as well. It still hasn’t found a concrete battery supplier and manufacturing partner for the project, should it proceed to commercialisation.

Till 2021, former Apple executive Doug Fields was in charge of Project Titan. When he left for Ford, Lynch was handed added responsibilities over his day-to-day Apple Watch duties with overarching responsibility of the project being with John Giannandrea, the Senior Vice President for Machine Learning and AI Strategy at Apple.