Apple builds a car, and the road is bumpy

Apple's car-building program first began in 2014, when Apple launched Project Titan, which saw more than 1,000 automotive experts and engineers develop electric vehicles at an undisclosed location near Apple's Cupertino headquarters.

In the following 8 years, Apple's car-building project was very bumpy, and even suspended for a while, trying to turn to the research and development of autonomous driving software, and after internal debate, it re-listed car-building.

The optimism and expectations of the outside world do not mean that Apple's car building can be smooth sailing. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman report, the core team members of Apple's autonomous driving and cars have been lost since last year, and the executive team has also undergone a major change.

Joe Bass, a veteran of Apple's car team and head of software engineering, left and joined Meta. This is only the most recent departure of a core team member. At the same time, the two most senior executives of Apple's car program in 2020-2021 have also changed a round.

Vehicle manufacturing, in a deadlock

Since Apple launched its car-building plan, its strategy has been oscillating between "soft technology for autonomous driving" and "production of complete vehicles".

According to US media reports, as of 2020, Apple's self-driving project has accumulated only 19,000 miles, while Google's self-driving project Waymo has accumulated 630,000 miles in the same period.

In February this year, the test report disclosed by the California DMV showed that Apple’s total autonomous driving test mileage ranked 14th, and the MPD (average mileage per disengagement) was 20.02 miles (about 32km), ranking 22nd, with Waymo, Cruise, The gap between top players such as Pony.ai is very large, and they are no longer at the same level.

At the same time, Apple's progress in vehicle manufacturing has frequently stalled. It has discussed joint development and production agreements with car manufacturers such as BMW, Hyundai, Nissan, and Toyota, but has not made substantial progress. In the end, it has no choice but to switch to fully independent production, which undoubtedly aggravates the difficulty of the project. So far, no prototype car has come out.

APPLE CAR, the future is unknown

After a series of difficult twists and turns, Apple's ambition to build a car is being exhausted little by little.

The industry is full of expectations for Apple's cars, but if Apple's research and development can't keep up, it is not impossible for the entire car-building plan to stop. According to Apple's vision, a car capable of fully autonomous driving is one of the key capabilities of Apple Car. However, judging from the current test results, its autonomous driving level is not the top in the industry.

Last month, major self-driving testing companies submitted their full-year test reports to the California DMV, including Apple. Apple's self-driving test ranked 14th in total mileage, and its MPD (average mileage per departure) was 20.02 miles (about 32km), ranking 22nd. From the results, it was slightly mediocre, compared with Waymo, Cruise, Pony.ai, etc. There is a clear gap between the more active head players in the test, and it can be said that it is not of an order of magnitude.

2022 could be the make-or-break year for Apple Cars. In the context of the departure of a large number of executives, the uncertainty of the shape of the car, and even the relatively mediocre results of autonomous driving tests, there is still a lot of uncertainty in Apple's car manufacturing.

Article data source: AutoUpdate