After many years of trying to jump-start a self-driving car program internally, a new report claims that Apple Inc. is closing on a deal with Korean automotive OEM Hyundai-Kia to develop an Apple-based autonomous electric vehicle (EV).
The report from CNBC said that the vehicle will be manufactured in Hyundai’s assembly plant in West Point, Georgia, and will tentatively go into production in 2024.
While no agreement has been reached yet, CNBC said Apple may also choose to partner with another automaker separately or in addition to working with Hyundai if a deal is finalized with potentially many “Apple Cars” being produced by numerous automotive OEMs.
Apple has been trying to get into a market that is slated for a boom given every automotive OEM is rapidly expanding its EV lineup to match a growing demand from consumers for the vehicles and upcoming legislation and mandates from governments to move toward electrification as a means to fight climate change.
According to the report, Apple is interested in building a car with an auto manufacturer that allows Apple to control the software and hardware that will go into the vehicle. The goal would be to then brand it as an “Apple Car” to appeal to the device maker’s legion of loyal fans that frequently rush to buy anything new from the company.
The report said that the car will be driverless, autonomous and electric, while focused on the last mile. This could mean that the cars will likely be designed as robotaxis or delivery vehicles instead of passenger transportation.
For its part, Hyundai has been working with Aptiv, a self-driving vehicle startup, and formed Motional as a joint venture to develop Level 4 and Level 5 autonomous vehicles. Since then, the company was granted permission to test fully driverless cars in Las Vegas and formed a deal with Lyft to launch a robotaxi service in major U.S. cities beginning in 2023. It is unclear how this partnership with Aptiv will be affected by a deal with Apple, if at all, or if it will be a separate deal with both groups working in tandem with similar goals.
A long road for Project Titan
In 2017, Apple began working on its so-called Project Titan, a plan to develop its own fully autonomous car. But the company quickly scrapped that idea in favor of technology that would power self-driving, leaving the actual car building to the automotive OEMs.
The company came so far with its technology that Apple appeared on a list of companies granted permits to test autonomous vehicles in the state of California and later a Lexus with Apple’s self-driving technology was spotted on the streets in Silicon Valley. However, these plans were also reportedly scrapped not too long after.
Fast forward to 2019 and Apple again crops up as being interested in developing a self-driving program after buying Drive.ai, a struggling self-driving startup developing its own vehicles and technology. According to reports, Apple bought the assets of Drive.ai including its autonomous vehicles but it was unclear how many engineers were absorbed or what assets made it to the transition.
