The Apple Car is still a thing, new 2028 launch target set

Apple is continuing to work towards a potential 2028 launch for its long-in-development Apple Car EV project. Known internally as Project Titan and T172, rumors of the project first surfaced in 2017 but development has been anything but smooth. Over the years, the project has seen top managers turn over frequently for numerous reasons including concerns the project would never see the light of day through to a need to scale down ambitions for a vehicle that was originally intended to be fully autonomous.

According to a fresh report from Bloomberg, the project is still moving forward with a current launch target of 2028. Now, however, instead of a fully autonomous vehicle, what is known as Level 5 in the industry, Apple is said to be targeting a much less ambitious Level 2+ vehicle for launch, with plans to upgrade it to Level 4 capability. At Level 4 autonomy, a vehicle can self-drive under certain conditions - such as a local driverless taxi - or it could even lack pedals or a traditional steering wheel.

As Tesla owners will be aware, promises of fully autonomous self-driving features have been much more difficult to deliver as roads and road conditions vary considerably and from region to region and country to country. The technology and computational power to deliver fully self-driving road going vehicles may still take many years to mature. According to the report, there are still various possible trajectories for the project which includes anything up to a full launch, through to indefinitely putting the project on the backburner.

Apple has long had an interest in integrating its technology into cars, starting with its CarPlay interface and evolving into the next-generation of Apple CarPlay which will be fully embedded in a car’s entire systems, operating independently of an iPhone. This latest iteration of CarPlay (no doubt a spin-off from the Apple Car project itself) will be reaching select automakers with Porsche and Aston Martin set to roll out vehicles with it on board soon. Google already has a foothold in the market with its competing Android Automotive (Android Auto next-gen) embedded already on the road including Volvo and Polestar.

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