Apple Car development project timeline, from birth to failure
Apple's electric self-driving car ``Apple Car'' development project, commonly known as `` Project Titan '', whose existence has been suggested since 2014,
Crash of the Titan: a short history of Apple's doomed car project - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/3/24085995/apple-car-project-titan-timeline-driverless-ev-doomed
◆2008
It was first reported in
◆2015
From around February 2015 , ``self-driving cars with huge sensors attached to the roof'' began to be seen driving in San Francisco, California, near Apple's headquarters. Regarding this, various companies such as the Wall Street Journal pointed out that ``Apple's car'', and soon after that, the existence of Project Titan, an autonomous car development project, began to be suggested. Furthermore, there are rumors that ``Apple's car will debut in 2020' '.
In May , Jeff Williams, Apple's head of operations, attended Code Conference 2015 and said, ``The car is the ultimate mobile device,'' hinting at the direction of the Apple Car, which was still only a rumor. The situation led to the situation where it could be interpreted that the words had been used in a way that would have made him do something. On the other hand, in June, Apple officially explained that ``the previously seen car was for a map app,'' and market expectations calmed down a bit.
However, in July , it was reported that CEO Tim Cook had visited BMW headquarters, reigniting expectations for car development. According to the report, ``CEO Cook and other executives wanted to know how BMW manufactures cars,'' and they were particularly interested in the small electric car `` i3' ' that the company was developing. I was told that it was. Also, in July , it was reported that Apple had hired a person who had previously worked in quality control at Toyota, Nissan, etc., and in August , there was also a report that Apple was negotiating with a vast driving test site. .
In September , the Wall Street Journal reported that 'Apple expects to ship cars in 2019 and has tripled its initial workforce of 600 people.' That same month , the California Department of Transportation confirmed it had met with Apple to discuss autonomous vehicle regulations.
In early October , Tesla CEO Elon Musk caused controversy when he said, ``Apple is poaching bad employees from Tesla.'' At a Wall Street Journal event held from the 19th to the 21st , CEO Cook took the stage and said, ``What we are doing now will become clear in the future.The auto industry is at a crossroads where major changes are taking place.'' I believe that we are on the verge of a change.This is not simply a change that will remain in the flow of evolution up until now.'' Although he did not confirm the existence of any specific products, he hinted that he was working on automobile-related products. On the 20th , officials at Mission Motors, an electric motorcycle startup, claimed that Apple's aggressive poaching caused the company to go bankrupt. Also on the 26th , it was reported that Apple had poached an artificial intelligence expert from NVIDIA and assigned him to its self-driving car development team.
In the fall of 2015 , the New York Times reported that Cook CEO and Apple designer (at the time) Jony Ive conducted a strange demonstration of ``what it would be like to ride in a car equipped with Siri.'' According to the newspaper, the two sat down on seats in a car-like cabin and asked Siri, played by a voice actor, who was waiting nearby, for the location of the restaurant, and had the actor read out the answer. That's it.
◆2016
In January , it was revealed that a person believed to be associated with Apple had acquired the domains ``apple.car'', ``apple.cars'', and ``apple.auto''. Around the same time , it was also revealed that Steve Zadesky, who was said to be in charge of the Apple car project, left the company and the post became vacant. In February , CEO Cook hinted at the development of an 'Apple Car.' In March , a 'mysterious noise' began to be heard coming from the Apple building in California, and a somewhat strange event occurred that was linked to the development of the Apple Car.
Project Titan seemed to be progressing smoothly, but in April , German media reported that ``BMW has given up on talks with Apple,'' causing anxiety about its future destination. According to reports, Apple's efforts to integrate the software into its platform did not align with BMW's strategy to prioritize data protection. On April 20 , it was reported that Apple had hired Chris Pollitt, former vice president of Tesla's automotive engineering division. Also, on April 26th , Ford's CEO asserted that ``Apple is developing cars.''
In May , Reuters reported that Apple was investigating electric vehicle charging stations. On July 22nd , The Information reported that the Apple Car's release date will be delayed to 2021. Also, on July 26th, it was reported that Bob Mansfield , who has worked on hardware engineering for the MacBook Air, iMac, and iPad, became the director of Project Titan. Then, on July 29 , it was reported that Apple was beginning to direct resources toward the development of automotive software in parallel with the development of the car itself. At this time, the existence of the Apple Car was not officially recognized yet, but it was considered an ``open secret'' in Silicon Valley.
In September , Apple reportedly laid off dozens of employees as it reconsidered its approach to Project Titan. At the end of the same month, there were rumors that Apple was considering acquiring British supercar company McLaren and self-balancing bike startup Rit Motors, but neither came to fruition. In October , CEO Cook was reported to have said, ``We aim to unify automobile development into software.''
Meanwhile , it was reported that vacuum cleaner maker Dyson was developing an electric car, but this project was canceled in 2019 . In December 2016, it was revealed that the self-driving car project that Google had been promoting will become an independent company, and development will continue even in 2024.
Google's self-driving car project becomes independent as new company 'Waymo' - GIGAZINE
◆2017
In April 2017 , the California Department of Transportation granted Apple permission to drive vehicles equipped with autonomous driving technology on public roads. A Lexus RX 450h that was allowed to drive has been seen driving around Silicon Valley. In June , CEO Cook said, ``Apple is focusing on autonomous driving systems,'' and finally acknowledged the existence of the Apple Car.
In October , a Lexus SUV was seen again, and it was revealed that it was equipped with a 'collection of sensors wrapped in white plastic' rather than the makeshift device seen in April. In December, Ruslan Sarakhatdinov , Apple's AI director, provided a detailed explanation of the technologies Apple uses, including a technology called ``LiDAR'' that uses lasers to understand the positional relationship with surrounding objects. .
Apple's AI director talks about self-driving car related technology being developed - GIGAZINE
◆2018
In January , it was revealed that the number of development vehicles used by Apple had increased to about 30. In April , Apple applied for a patent for technology that uses AR to display ``parts that are invisible to the driver.'' In May , it was revealed that Apple had teamed up with Volkswagen, and it was reported that Volkswagen's T6 van would be converted into a self-driving shuttle that Apple employees would use to move between company buildings. I did. In June , Apple applied for a patent for self-driving car technology that can park and stop based on the driver's intentions.
In July , Xiaoloang Zhang, an Apple employee involved in Project Titan, was arrested on suspicion of stealing Apple's confidential information.
In August , another regular car rear-ended the test vehicle as it tried to merge onto the highway. This was the first accident in Project Titan history. According to reports, Apple's test vehicle was traveling at 1 mile per hour (approximately 1.6 km per hour) when it was rear-ended by a Nissan vehicle traveling at 15 miles per hour (approximately 24 km per hour). Fortunately, there were no injuries.
◆2019
In January 2019 , Project Titan was downsized as Apple laid off 200 people 'to support machine learning and other initiatives.' Also, at the end of the same month , the second person in Project Titan history was arrested.
In February , AppleInsider reported that Apple Car may include iPhone authentication and payments. At the end of the same month , it was reported that Apple laid off 190 employees, which also affected Project Titan.
In June , Apple acquired autonomous driving startup Drive.ai. Drive.ai was founded by researchers at Stanford University and operated a small self-driving shuttle service in Texas. Then, in July , Apple applied for a patent for a car-related ``bumper that expands and contracts using pressurized gas.'' In November, Jonathan Ive, who designed the iPhone and other products, left Apple, making it a hot topic. Although the relationship with the Apple Car has not been clarified, it is reported that many opinions were expressed.
Jonathan Ive, who has worked on designs such as iPhone, will become independent and establish a new company 'LoveFrom' - GIGAZINE
◆2020
In December 2020 , Apple reportedly delegated responsibility for Project Titan to John Gianandrea, head of Siri and artificial intelligence. Around this time, prominent analysts began to predict that the Apple Car would appear in 2024 or 2025 .
◆2021
In January , Bloomberg reported that Project Titan included dozens of former Tesla employees. Soon after, South Korea's Korea IT News reported that ``Hyundai (Hyundai) and its subsidiary Kia Motors will be in charge of manufacturing Apple's self-driving cars.'' Within days, it was revealed that Apple was looking to acquire electric car maker Canoo, and in February it was reported that Apple had hired Porsche's head of chassis development.
On February 3rd , Korea IT News and CNBC also reported that ``Hyunde and Kia Motors will be responsible for manufacturing,'' but about a week later, on February 8th , Hyundai and Kia Motors denied the report. .
In April , CEO Cook spoke in an interview about self-driving cars and the development of AR glasses. Regarding the former, he said, ``We believe that autonomous systems that are one step ahead of self-driving cars are the core technology,'' and regarding the latter, ``AR has the potential to play a very important part in Apple's future.'' I only mention that there is. The latter is thought to have been a foreshadowing of the Apple Vision Pro, which later became a hot topic around the world.
The release date of Apple's 'Vision Pro' is decided on February 2nd, storage is 256GB and price is over 500,000 yen - GIGAZINE
In June 2021 , Reuters reported that Apple was in talks with two companies to supply batteries for electric vehicles. Around the same time , it was also reported that Apple was looking to integrate driving into its Wallet app. Regarding the implementation of the driver's license, target areas were announced in September , and it became available in March of the following year.
In July 2021 , it was reported that Kevin Lynch, who was involved in the development of the Apple Watch, would join Project Titan, while in September , Doug Field, who was the de facto head of Project Titan, was announced. The environment has changed significantly, including the announcement that he will be leaving Apple. Mr. Lynch has been appointed as his successor.
In November , it was revealed that Apple will hire former Tesla employee Christopher Moore to develop self-driving software.
◆2022
Moore retired in May.
In June, the next generation version of Apple CarPlay was announced at Apple's developer event ' WWDC22 ', and it was revealed that it would be possible to utilize a display that covers the entire car dashboard.
In July, The Information published a report summarizing internal information about Project Titan, exposing the project team's struggles and external teams' concerns about Project Titan.
A report revealing Apple's self-driving car development will be published - GIGAZINE
by Automobile Italia
In September 2022 , a survey by a consulting company revealed that the unreleased Apple Car is attracting more attention than the already released Tesla. In December , it will be reported that Apple will once again scale back Project Titan, potentially making its self-driving features less capable than originally planned. The same report also said that the price of the Apple Car will be less than 14 million yen and that it will be released in 2026.
◆2023
In May , the Justice Department indicted a former Apple engineer on suspicion of stealing Apple's self-driving technology. This is the third arrest related to Project Titan. In July , it was revealed that the scale of the test driver team had been expanded, but 2023 has been a year in which almost no Apple Car-related information has come out.
◆2024
In January , Bloomberg reported that the release of the Apple Car has been postponed to 2028. A few days later, it was revealed that DJ Novotney, the hardware executive who helped launch Project Titan, would be moving to electric car maker Rivian. On February 2 , the California Department of Land Transportation released a report stating that ``Apple has completed over 450,000 miles (approximately 720,000 km) of autonomous driving in the year ending November 2023.'' It was expected that the distance would significantly exceed the previous year, but less than a month after this report, Bloomberg announced that ``Project Titan has been canceled.''
Report that Apple has canceled its self-driving car development project, could it be the end of more than 10 years of development? - GIGAZINE
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