Apple Car, What we know so far?
Apple, a tech giant, already famous for its iPhone is working on a secrete project code name “Project Titan”. It was first about an autonomous system. But later Apple changes this project to design a fully functional car due to various reasons. There is no doubt that the car is going to be completely electrical.
History
Project Titan was started at some point in 2014 with nearly 1000 employees at a secrete location near its Cupertino headquarters. This project was assigned to Vice President Steve Zadesky at that time. This project is under a lot of pressure due to leadership problems and other issues. Rumors in 2016 also reported that Apple stops working on a car.
But in mid-2017 apple car has been a topic once again because Apple CEO Tim Cook confirms that Apple is working on self-driving technology.
In the January of 2018, Apple registered 27 self-driving vehicles in California.
In the year 2019 Apple bought a startup Drive.ai right before its bankruptcy.
This project has seen a lot of ups and downs like different leaders, and hundreds of employees were laid off from this project. But right now it is led by John Giannandrea.
Release Date
There are a lot of rumors and misconceptions about the release date. Because Apple has been tight-lipped about this project.
A report from Reuters said that Apple will launch its car in the year 2024.
But Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that a launch will not happen until 2025–2027 at the earliest.
But as of right now there is not a piece of confirmed official news about its launch.
Apple is expected to build a “beta” version of the “Apple Car” by 2022 then order 100,000 for production in 2024 but it is not confirmed yet.
Possible Partnerships
Multiple rumors suggest that Apple is currently in talks with multiple companies about its self-driving car. Apple is also going to be establishing a company in the USA.
Apple was in talks with Hyundai motor. Rumors were also that Apple is going to invest 4 trillion won ($3.8 billion) in Kia motor(33.8% shares owns by Hyundai).
Hyundai even verifies that they are in early talks with Apple to develop a car.
But later Hyundai said that they are not in talks with Apple. This led to suspicion that maybe Apple closes the deal with it and don’t want to reveal it. But who knows?
Multiple Lidar Sensor
As apple car is going to be self-driven, the company is going to use multiple lidar sensors in the car.
Lidar is a technology to measure the distance between two objects using laser light and measuring the time taken by the reflection of the light to return to the sensor.
According to some rumors, Apple is in the discussion with some potential suppliers of lidar sensors that are used in the car to see its surrounding.
Apple iPhone 12 pro and iPad pro both got a lidar sensor in the camera section to improve the image quality.
Battery
Apple is planning to try something different with the car battery. The battery could be “monocell”. That means there would be one bulk cell of the battery by eliminating all the different materials used to store battery components.
Apple’s design would give more room for active material inside the battery which gives the car a long battery time.
Apple is also working on the chemistry of the battery to make it better. They are using an LFP or Lithium iron phosphate which inherits less heat than Lithium-ion batteries, thus providing a safer ride.
What’s Next?
Well, just hope for the best. I know we all are eagerly waiting for the car. But Apple has been tight-lipped about this project. Surely, Apple knows how to keep a secret. But hope that car is worth our wait.
