Apple Car team reforming before end of 2022 says Ming-Chi Kuo
After some years of relative silence, the Apple Car team is said to be restarting work, with a potential reformation of the group before the end of the year, Ming-Chi Kuo believes.
Apple Car
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo took to Twitter on Wednesday with a single tweet sharing his prediction, based on a "survey."
Sometimes known as Project Titan, the term has been used to refer to a car designed by Apple and a self-driving vehicle system. Multiple cycles of rumors throughout the years have converged lately on a fully autonomous vehicle requiring little human intervention while driving.
Rumors go back to 2014 when the first leak described Project Titan focused on vehicles. Apple formed a shell company called SixtyEight Research and began working in a California facility known as SG5.
The Project Titan team has seen numerous changes. Bob Mansfield took over as project lead in 2016, and the suggestion at the time was that Apple wouldn't directly compete with Tesla.
Much has transpired since then, and the COVID pandemic is said to be a factor in Apple's back-burnering the project. The rumor mill was mostly quiet about the project, prior to Kuo's Tweet on Wednesday.
Kuo has said a vehicle launch from Apple is unlikely to happen before 2025.
In August 2018 he said the launch date could be as early as 2023. Previous dates included 2020 and 2021, with delays linked to the departures of team leaders.
Currently, Kuo's TF Securities expects a launch between 2025 and 2027. Apple could work with Kia to manufacture the vehicle, and the company has approached other manufacturers such as Nissan and Hyundai.
Read on AppleInsider
Apple Car
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo took to Twitter on Wednesday with a single tweet sharing his prediction, based on a "survey."
It's not clear who was included in the survey that Kuo is talking about. Kuo's sources are more on the supply-side than inside Apple itself.My latest survey indicates that Apple will likely build the new Apple Car project team before the end of 2022.
Apple2022Apple Car-- (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo)
Sometimes known as Project Titan, the term has been used to refer to a car designed by Apple and a self-driving vehicle system. Multiple cycles of rumors throughout the years have converged lately on a fully autonomous vehicle requiring little human intervention while driving.
Rumors go back to 2014 when the first leak described Project Titan focused on vehicles. Apple formed a shell company called SixtyEight Research and began working in a California facility known as SG5.
The Project Titan team has seen numerous changes. Bob Mansfield took over as project lead in 2016, and the suggestion at the time was that Apple wouldn't directly compete with Tesla.
Much has transpired since then, and the COVID pandemic is said to be a factor in Apple's back-burnering the project. The rumor mill was mostly quiet about the project, prior to Kuo's Tweet on Wednesday.
Kuo has said a vehicle launch from Apple is unlikely to happen before 2025.
In August 2018 he said the launch date could be as early as 2023. Previous dates included 2020 and 2021, with delays linked to the departures of team leaders.
Currently, Kuo's TF Securities expects a launch between 2025 and 2027. Apple could work with Kia to manufacture the vehicle, and the company has approached other manufacturers such as Nissan and Hyundai.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
I put the Apple Car right up there with Kuo’s prediction of an Apple HDTV... any time now.
No one should be surprised that nothing has come of the car rumors as they have never been confirmed by any reliable source.
Not an Apple Car.
Not an iCar.
Not a Widget.
This is being secretly developed in a nondescript warehouse space some where in San Francisco where a top secret group of Apple engineers and some head hunted former Tesla engineers are going to revolutionize autonomous driving!!! Estimated time till production: 5 years.
You have been online long enough to know that Apple rumor sites will post anything for ad impressions. True journalism died in the Nineties.
As for this specific rumor, Ming-Chi Kuo is not predicting an Apple Car. He's predicting the reformation of a group to study the concept. Remember that just because Apple works on something doesn't necessarily mean it will make it to market. Look at that wireless AirPower charging mat. They abandoned it.
Periodically prototype designs of products that never made it to market leak out. For sure, not everything Apple prototypes ends up on a store shelf.
Nah, the Apple HDTV was Gene Munster's pet fantasy, not Kuo's.
Funny to me, anyway.
Anyone paying any bit of attention has seen the massive amount of work they've been putting into this, on top of the straight-up rumors of partnerships etc.
Patently Apple has 133 items on Project Titan:
https://www.patentlyapple.com/autonomous-vehicle-technology/
They'll turn it into a product when the technologies they need to create the experience they want are adequately developed, and not sooner.
It's not like they're making stuff up, see the Patently Apple link above.
I hope this is right. I was very annoyed to find that Volvo put Android Auto in the C40 Recharge. I'm annoyed my Sony TV runs Android TV. All of these kinds of OSes should have an Apple option. What you suggest sounds reasonable - Apple developed software AND hardware to be incorporated in the cars of partners. You get get the car you want with a superior OS and sensors that integrates perfectly with iOS and maybe even Homekit.
In this case, Ming-Chi Kuo says that he thinks Apple is trying to put together a new Apple Car research team. He's not stating that an Apple Car is coming. Apple has been working on this for nearly ten years.
Alphabet has been working on Waymo for longer.
He's not even speculating what product -- if any -- would ship.
One thing we do know -- based on California DMV autonomous vehicle testing data -- is that Apple's on again/off again program does not have much in the way of total miles driven. For sure the US DOT, the California DMV, and other authorities aren't going to let Apple market any sort of vehicle (consumer or commercial) without extensive road testing. And when I mean road testing, I mean on PUBLIC roads, not some fenced off test track in Nevada, Utah, wherever.
There is nothing new here. Various companies have been testing autonomous vehicles for years and years and there are only a handful of very limited deployments here in the USA.