‘Apple’s self-driving car will have a design with a steering wheel and pedals’

It has been assumed for years that Apple will release a self-driving car in a few years, but according to sources the design is less ambitious than previously intended. For example, the design has been adjusted in such a way that a steering wheel and pedals are still present.

According to sources reportedly familiar with the plans, the project has been significantly revised and work is now underway on a design that is less far-reaching in terms of autonomy, writes Bloomberg. This not only means that there will be a steering wheel and pedals, but also that fully autonomous capabilities will only be supported on highways. An Apple spokesperson did not respond to questions asked by Bloomberg.

The project, known internally at Apple as Titan, is said to have been more or less at a standstill in recent months as Apple executives have come to the realization that the original, ambitious vision is not feasible with current technology. According to the sources, the release date has also been pushed back by a year and the car is currently scheduled to be released in 2026. This concerns a car for consumers and therefore not a vehicle for taxi services.

Apple’s previous vision was to develop a car with Level 5 autonomy. That is the highest level and is actually not yet within the reach of car manufacturers. At this highest level, a car can drive completely autonomously in all circumstances and the ‘driver’ never has to take over the steering wheel, as long as a steering wheel is already present at level 5. For example, drivers can ask such a car to drive to specific locations, after which the car will do this independently.

Two years ago, Reuters reported that Apple wanted to release its self-driving car in 2024 and that it would use lidar to map the environment and measure the distances to objects. These scanners are said to be derived from the cool sensors that Apple integrated into the iPad Pro and iPhone 12 Pro in 2020.

In addition to lidar, cameras and radar were also provided, a combination that many car manufacturers use for the development of self-driving cars; only Tesla focuses on cameras as the only sensors. A computer system in the car codenamed Denali was considered to process all that data. The performance is said to be equal to four of the highest ranked Mac processors. This chip for the self-driving car is reportedly almost ready for production, but it is possible that a less advanced version will be used now that the level of autonomy also seems to be reduced.