Apple bows to autonomous driving

Apple's first car will no longer pursue full autonomous driving capabilities, and at the same time, the release time will be postponed to 2026.

Apple also bowed its head in the face of autonomous driving.

Apple has adjusted its self-driving plans and pushed back the release date of its cars by a year to 2026, people familiar with the matter said, according to Bloomberg.

Previously, Apple's goal was to develop a car with L5 level fully autonomous driving capabilities, and a version without a steering wheel and pedals, and planned to release it in 2025.

It is said that regarding the design of the Apple car, Apple has previously discussed a plan similar to Canoo Inc.'s Lifestyle Vehicle. The interior space is like an extended luxury car, and passengers can sit opposite each other.

Not long ago, pictures of the Apple car produced by foreign netizens were circulated on the Internet, saying it was positioned as a luxury business pure electric car and was expected to sell for 800,000 yuan.

But judging from the current news, it seems that executives of Apple's car-making project have to face reality. The current technical conditions are not enough to support Apple to build a mature fully autonomous car in 2025.

People familiar with the matter said that the current major change in the Titan project is that Apple is no longer obsessed with building a fully autonomous car in one step, but has lowered its expectations and first produced a more traditional model with a steering wheel and pedals, and only Support autonomous driving capabilities on highways.

At the same time, people familiar with the matter also said that Apple had previously planned to sell each car for more than 120,000 US dollars, but the current goal is to reduce the price to less than 100,000 US dollars.

When Ming-Chi Kuo broke the news in March that Apple was disbanding its car-making team, Zhijia.com analyzed that Apple’s cars would not become obsolete, but there were only two possibilities for launching a mass-produced model in 2025: First, everyone would be happy, and the original plan would be realized, but more changes would be made. A possible solution is for Apple to temporarily abandon the fully autonomous driving route and first build a car with limited autonomous driving capabilities ("Who said Apple cars are going to be yellow?"). Now it seems that Apple has chosen a compromise route and delayed the release by a year.

We have always believed that even for Apple, it will not be easy to build a car that can achieve L5 level autonomous driving in 2025.

Autonomous driving is not that easy. Especially this year, the industry as a whole has been shrouded in uncertainty. Argo AI has been shut down, and there is little news from domestic autonomous driving companies. More companies are turning to L2 and L3 level assisted driving systems to achieve self-generation.

However, there are also many who insist on development. For example, Cruise is testing Origin, a self-driving vehicle without a steering wheel and pedals. Domestic companies such as Baidu and Pony still stick to the L4 self-driving track. For companies turning to L2 and L3 level assisted driving, autonomous driving above L4 level is still the goal.

As Musk, the originator of procrastination, said: "When I think things can be achieved, I am usually a little optimistic, but they usually do happen, just not in the expected time period."

For Apple, launching L5 autonomous vehicles in 2025 is obviously an overly optimistic estimate. Now it is more in line with the current reality to adjust the goal and launch vehicles with partial autonomous driving capabilities first. First there is the Apple car, and then there is the fully autonomous Apple car. Seems like a more reasonable route.

In the nearly ten years since Project Titan was launched in 2014, Apple has never officially announced a car-building plan, nor has it produced any substantive results. But there has never been less news about Apple cars. People in charge have come and gone, teams have come and gone, teams have come together again, and partners are confusing.

According to sources, Apple has not finalized the design of its car and is still in the "pre-prototype" stage. It aims to have the design ready next year, complete the functional setup by the end of 2024, and then conduct extensive testing of the car in 2025. .

It shouldn't be a big problem for Apple to build a vehicle with limited autonomous driving capabilities in 2026. Maybe we’ll finally get a glimpse of what Apple’s car is really like.

According to Bloomberg, Apple’s current self-driving capabilities for its vehicles are set to enable autonomous driving on the highway, and the driver can leave the steering wheel and watch movies or play games. When entering city streets or encountering bad weather, the system will reserve enough time to remind the driver to take over. Apple plans to launch this feature in North America first, and then improve and expand it later.

Judging from its functional description, it is equivalent to Mercedes-Benz's L3 autonomous driving capabilities, but the information currently disclosed by Apple Car does not mention speed limits.

Regarding Apple’s autonomous driving system, according to people familiar with the matter, its core technology is an on-board computing system code-named Denali (the highest peak in North America). Its performance is said to be equivalent to the sum of four of Apple’s highest-end Mac chips. Developed by Apple's Silicon Valley team, it has now entered the late stages of development and is close to mass production. However, Apple may use a smaller version with smaller computing power to save costs when it comes to actual mass production.

In terms of sensor configuration, unlike Tesla’s purely visual route, Apple plans to use a solution that combines lidar, millimeter wave radar and cameras to better help the vehicle determine its position, view the lane and evaluate its interaction with other objects and people. distance.

In addition to the on-board hardware, the system also includes cloud-based components to complete some of the artificial intelligence processing. It is hosted by Amazon Web Services, for which Apple reportedly pays $125 million per year. Its automotive projects cost $1 billion per year.

In addition, Apple is also exploring the establishment of a remote command center to assist drivers and control the car from a distance in emergencies. At the same time, Apple is also considering providing exclusive insurance plans to users.

In terms of the basic configuration of electric vehicles, such as chassis, wheel systems, and batteries, Apple is said to have discussed the electric vehicle platform (called "skateboard chassis" in the industry) with multiple suppliers, but is still looking for Partner. Apple had earlier been in talks with several companies about licensing their platforms, but the only serious talks were with Volkswagen a few years ago.

Regarding vehicle production, previous news is that Apple will adopt an OEM model and has had close contacts with BMW, Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan, Volkswagen and even Porsche. But the previous news ultimately pointed to Foxconn’s parent company Hon Hai Group.

According to people familiar with the matter, there are currently about 1,000 employees working on the Apple Car project, spread across various campuses in Sunnyvale, California, Arizona, Ottawa and Zurich.

Much of the basic engineering work, industrial design and software development is done in Sunnyvale, while some development of the vehicle's operating system is done in Ottawa.

The Zurich-based team is developing a tool called "Rocket Score" to evaluate a vehicle's autonomous driving system.

▲Ulrich Kranz

In addition, the design of Apple Car is said to be led by former Canoo CEO Ulrich Kranz, the software part is led by former Tesla executive Stuart Bowers, and safety engineering, testing and regulatory affairs are handled by former Ford Motor executive Desi Ujkashevic. Desi was revealed to have left Ford in May this year to join Apple in building cars.

Much of the vehicle testing was done at the former Chrysler Raceway outside Phoenix, while its autonomous driving system was tested using a Lexus RX450h model. According to DMV data in 2021, Apple has a total of 37 test vehicles in California with a test mileage of 13,272 miles.

In the future, Apple also plans to integrate several of its automotive teams into a new campus next to the San Jose Airport, which covers an area of ​​approximately 500,000 square feet and can accommodate other Apple teams in addition to the automotive team.

▲Kevin Lynch

Apple's change in autonomous driving strategy seems to be a compromise, but judging from the current development situation, it is also a more practical approach. The current goal set by Kevin Lynch, the current head of Project Titan, is to ensure the stability of the team and launch products that can enter the market as soon as possible.

This is a more pragmatic choice for Apple’s car-building plan, which has not produced a product in ten years and has not been officially announced.