Apple Car may hit the road in 2025, report claims
Interestingly Apple is alleged to have imported one of these vehicles back in 2014.
Can anyone else out there recall when people said Apple had canned development of the Apple Car? I do. Now it appears such claims were somewhat misplaced, as the latest speculation is that the company has achieved a breakthrough in processor design and is now accelerating to bring its new show to the road in 2025.
What’s happening?
A Bloomberg report states that Apple has developed a processor for a self-driving, autonomous vehicle (as previously speculated) without a steering wheel or pedals. This is significant as most development in the smart car space seems to have settled around semi-autonomous transport.
What’s driven (sorry) Apple to move in that direction is the processor. The report states the chip is the most advanced processor the company has developed internally. It informs us that the Neural Engine on these chips has now reached a point when it can handle the huge number of computations it takes to support autonomous cars.
After all, cars don’t just move forward, eyes-shut. They need to be aware in front, behind and to either side, and must have enough real-time processing capacity to react immediately – and safely – to the kinds of chaos we all see take place on the road.
That takes a lot of computation. I wonder if Apple will call these processors ‘C-Series’ chips? They can’t be A (Automobile) as the A-series processors are in iPhones. But perhaps the name doesn’t matter too much.
The report also says it isn’t sure if Apple will work with a production partner on this project, or who it might be. The reaction on the stock market has been swift – Tesla, Rivian, Luci and GM are all bleeding red, while Apple is up a couple of percentage points.
What is Apple developing?
- Hands-free vehicle
- No steering wheel – though this may be required for emergency use
- No pedals
- The processor needs a lot of cooling.
- Design could be more like Canoo vehicles in which passengers sit opposite each other.
- iPad-style console controls.
- Electric vehicle compatible with existing charging devices.
- Apple has been testing the system in its fleet of Lexus SUVs.
- Launch aim for 2025, but this may slip. If it does, Apple may sell a less advanced vehicle, or delay launch.
- Apple is ramping up hiring to meet these deadlines.
What we think we know
We know Apple’s teams have spent billions of dollars and likely hundreds of thousands of hours working toward a vehicle. Apple has looked at every component that comprises a car, and has mapped and photographed every drivable road it could get to in many nations.
The company has also developed a world-class processor design that it has evidently managed to raise to the next level, and continues work with technologies such as LiDAR, UWB, Wi-FI 6.0 and so on. It’s Neural Engine will be expected to do much of the heavy lifting (should that be driving?) on device, rather than being reliant on intelligence in the cloud.
Apple’s work on camera sensors and machine vision intelligence also have significance in this plan. And don’t ignore the tech it acquired when it purchased Drive.ai.
In recent weeks, we’ve also heard that Apple has begun sourcing components for its vehicle, even while its manufacturing partner, Foxconn, invests in a huge vehicle production facility in Ohio. All the while preparing to introduce a next-generation transportation system that may be as disruptive to the automobile industry as combustion. I do think there’s a high probability these vehicles will be made available as a service.
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