Apple has scaled back its Titan self-driving technology project goals, according to a report from Bloomberg citing unnamed sources.
The decision could be partly due to economics, considering much of the world teeters on a recession. But the move seems to be primarily because a fully self-driving vehicle is difficult to engineer while it remains unclear if the public and governments are willing to fully embrace the technology.
“Making a fully autonomous self-driving vehicle is a huge undertaking from a technology perspective, and it also requires a large amount of real-world testing to make sure you’ve designed it correctly and it can operate safely—just look at all the negative issues around the premature tech in Teslas,” said Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates.
Ford recently pulled back its Argo AI advanced driver assistance systems effort, saying publicly there is still optimism around ADAS, but adding it is a long way off and could be handled by outside engineers.
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However, according to the sources that spoke to Bloomberg, Apple is still spending $1 billion a year on its Apple car project, and now wants an electric vehicle to launch a year later, in 2026, that would support fully autonomous capabilities only on highways instead of the Level 5 autonomy for all roadways as it wanted earlier. It would include a steering wheel and pedals with a driver’s seat, instead of seating passengers to face one another. It would also now sell for $100,000, down from an earlier projected price tag of $120,000.
The less-ambitious design might not be due to any failing in processing power. According to the sources in the report, the proposed car’s onboard computer called Denali has the power of four high-end Mac chips combined and is nearly production ready, although expensive.
Apple also intends to use lidar, radar and cameras to sense conditions, including how far it is from other cars, people and lines on the highway. Tesla has firmly rejected such a sensing approach in its vehicles, relying instead on cameras. Apple’s car also relies on the cloud for at least some of its AI processing, costing Apple $125 million annually that is paid to Amazon Web Services for hosting.
Apple would not comment on the Bloomberg report or its general Apple car intentions when requested by Fierce Electronics.
Here are four possible reasons Apple is pulling back on Titan, based on comments from Gold and other analysts and car experts:
1. The daunting difficulty in making an autonomous car work—everything from designs for safety software to deploying wide area network connectivity.
2. The economic downturn. Apple’s 2022 research budget is higher than previous years, but the company might be considering slowdowns in Titan and other projects.
3. The supply chain shortage. Even though access to chips needed for cars and trucks is improving, carmakers still face one-year delays for certain chips, not to mention other parts.
4. The buying market may not be ready for some time. “Many people are skeptical that autonomous cars are safe,” Gold said. “And autonomous vehicles may be $80,000 to $100,000 or more, so that’s not necessarily a mass market, especially in a projected economic downturn or recession. Waiting out the economic headwinds may be a good idea for Apple.”