Apple's electric driving car is moving full speed ahead.
Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal on Monday reported that Apple is aiming to start shipping its rumored electric car in 2019. The Cupertino tech giant is reportedly "accelerating" its electric car efforts after spending more than a year investigating whether it could actually make the project, known internally as Titan, a reality.
Apple has given its project leaders the go-ahead to triple Cupertino's 600-person electric vehicle team, the Journal's sources said. That team includes self-driving car experts, but Apple doesn't plan to make its first electric vehicle fully autonomous.
"That capability is part of the product's long-term plans," the Journal reported.
So does this mean we should expect to see Apple Cars on the roads before the end of the decade? Not necessarily. As the Journal pointed out, Apple has a long way to go before it can bring a car to market, and not everyone is convinced it will happen so soon.
"Once Apple completes its designs and prototypes, a vehicle would still need to undergo a litany of tests before it could clear regulatory hurdles," according to the report. "People familiar with the project said there is skepticism within the team that the 2019 target is achievable."
In February, Bloomberg suggested a 2020 timeline for an Apple vehicle.
The news comes after The Guardian last week reported that Apple's legal team met with the California Department of Motor Vehicles last month to review the state's self-driving car regulations. Apple's Senior Legal Counsel Mike Maletic reportedly had an hour-long meeting on Aug. 17 with self-driving car experts at the DMV.
Rumors about Apple's automotive ambitions date back to February when Reuters and The Wall Street Journal reported that Cupertino has "several hundred" employees working on an electric car.
The rumors heated up this summer when word spread that Apple hired Doug Betts, former head of global quality at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
Source: pcmag.com
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