Apple is still planning a battery-powered car with self-driving capabilities, according to a new report from Reuters.
The report says the tech company is targeting 2024 of a passenger vehicle that will boast a “breakthrough battery technology.”
Apple has been working on a car project as early as 2014. Dubbed “Project Titan,” the company explored building its own car from scratch. However, the company reportedly abandoned those efforts to focus on automotive software. In 2018, Apple tapped former Tesla employee Doug Field to manage the project.
According to the report:
Apple has progressed enough that it now aims to build a vehicle for consumers, two people familiar with the effort said, asking not to be named because Apple’s plans are not public. Apple’s goal of building a personal vehicle for the mass market contrasts with rivals such as Alphabet Inc’s Waymo, which has built robo-taxis to carry passengers for a driverless ride-hailing service.
The report says Apple’s battery uses a unique lithium iron phosphate “monocell” design that “bulks up the individual cells in the battery and frees up space inside the battery pack by eliminating pouches and modules that hold battery materials.” More room for cells means potentially longer range.
A Reuters source called the battery tech “next level, like “the first time you saw the iPhone.”
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