Apple Inc. joins the self-driving car game.
According to Reuters, the iPhone maker is aiming at 2024 as a possible target date to combat a self-driving passenger vehicle, a vehicle that may be powered by Apple’s own battery technology.
Known as Project TitanApple’s automotive plans seem to be temporarily derailed 2014, when the company divested resources in order to turn to more lucrative software projects. But since then, Apple has apparently swelled operations to the point that there are now plans to produce a mass-market consumer vehicle – a project by competitors like Waymo, which has so far exclusively targetedly on driverless rideshare, historically put off.
T.The supply chain challenges inherent in the production of its very first vehicle mean that even Apple, an electronics company with a global reach will do its job for it. Still, “If there’s one company on the planet that has the resources to do that, it’s probably Apple,” an unnamed Project Titan employee told Reuters. “But at the same time, it’s not a cell phone, ”the source added.
The big selling point of the planned vehicle will be probably the battery, which is said to be a unique “monocell” design of Apple’s own invention that could to clean up from bags and modules with battery materials to create more space for active material in the battery itself and to give the car a longer range.
Sources speaking with Reuters said Apple is also investigating the technology for LFP, or lithium iron phosphate, as a potentially safer alternative to lithium-ion batteries that are also less likely to overheat.
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In manufacturing the possible future self-driving vehicles, sources say Apple would most likely call on outside partners to help with the assembly. The company was said to have it initially in conversation with Magna International Inc., but those plans have since failed, sources close to the project said.