Apple Car at an Impasse

It was supposed to be the first pedal- and steering wheel-free autonomous car. Apple’s bluff or an industrial disaster?

According to Bloomberg, the launch of the American tech giant Apple’s first vehicle has been postponed from 2026 to 2028. Unfortunately, this is another blow to the Titan project announced ten years ago!

The original Apple electric car was supposed to be one of the very first vehicles without a steering wheel or pedals. It seems that in Cupertino, they have returned to much more modest ambitions with an electric car featuring traditional controls and semi-autonomous technology no more advanced than that of existing automakers like Mercedes and Tesla.

Are autonomous cars too dangerous?

By the end of 2022, the latest version of the project indeed mentioned an Apple car capable of Level 4 autonomous driving, allowing the car to drive itself in most scenarios, but with retractable steering and pedals that could be deployed in certain environments. The Level 5 autonomous car project, which was considered too futuristic and unrealistic in its current state, had already been shelved.

This change in direction reportedly followed “stormy” meetings between the project leader, Kevin Lynch, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and the company’s board of directors. The stakes are high because this is one of the company’s most expensive projects, with hundreds of millions of dollars spent over a decade, without much success let’s admit, as we don’t even have a small prototype to hold onto while waiting.

For once, Apple is lagging behind

Nevertheless, the 2028 horizon remains uncertain, especially with innovations pouring into the automotive sector, much like at Gravelotte. Will an idea born in 2014 still be viable 14 years later? The problem for Apple is that renouncing this car project is difficult, if not impossible, as competitors like Chinese firms Huawei and Xiaomi have already jumped into the breach, while Google continues to develop its autonomous car through its Waymo division. Sony has also partnered with Honda to create the Afeela car brand.