Apple’s decision to fold the Apple Car project, a venture they had nurtured for 10 years, was disappointing news for Apple enthusiasts anticipating their dream electric car. What could have led Apple to abandon the Apple Car project that they invested in for a decade? The answer seems to lie in their overly ambitious concept of a “fully autonomous vehicle” from the start.
On the 15th, IT media outlet MacRumors analyzed that the reason for the failure of Apple’s Titan (Apple Car) Project, whose recent launch plans have been scrapped, was an excessively ambitious design plan for a “fully autonomous vehicle.”
It was a gamble for Apple, which had never manufactured a car before, to present a fully autonomous vehicle with the help of a finished car manufacturer, which no one else had achieved.
Initially, there was a lot of focus on Apple’s potential. In 2015, rumors spread that Apple was developing a product similar to Google Street View or an Apple Car based on the CarPlay app that allows various iPhone functions to be used in vehicles when it was revealed that Apple had leased vans equipped with multiple cameras and roamed around the city with them.
However, it was overwhelming for Apple, which didn’t even have vehicle manufacturing technology, to achieve a fully autonomous vehicle, which no finished car manufacturer had ever accomplished. This is because Apple was pursuing Level 5 Autonomous Driving, known as the “dream technology.”
According to the revised version of the J3016 by the Society of Automotive Engineers, known as the global standard, autonomous driving is divided into levels 0~5 depending on the level of driving automation. Levels 0~2 are human-driven, and levels 3~5 are system-driven.
Level 3 is autonomous driving within a specific environment capable of simultaneous peripheral recognition and vehicle control, and current autonomous vehicles are at this stage. Level 4 is a stage where the vehicle is controlled by self-driving situation awareness and judgment. There is no driver intervention except for some emergencies, and the major finished car industry has set the goal of reaching this by 2027~30. The final stage, Level 5, is the “dream of autonomous driving,” where the system alone can operate in all environments.
However, it was daunting for Apple to launch a Level 5 autonomous vehicle with the help of finished car manufacturers without its own technology.
As a result, Apple’s ambition faced reality, dropping the object from Level 5 to Level 4, and it is reported that it eventually dropped to Level 2+ earlier this year. Level 2+ is a stage where the driver directly controls the vehicle with the help of lane departure prevention, vehicle distance maintenance, highway driving assistance functions, etc., similar to Tesla’s Autopilot.
The innovative design also had to be abandoned in 2022. Initially, they designed seats for passengers to face each other and converse in a form without a driver’s seat, pedals, and steering wheel, expecting Level 5. Still, it became an unattainable dream as fully autonomous driving became difficult.
Apple hired thousands of people for this project. They recruited former Tesla mechanical engineering manager David Nelson, former senior powertrain test engineer John Ireland, and former Tesla Vice President Chris Porritt. They dispatched Kevin Lynch, who led the development of the Apple Watch, to the project. They also recruited executives from finished car manufacturers Mercedes and BMW.
However, the excessive recruitment of talent might have been detrimental. The Apple Car team discussed various technologies, including silent electric doors and car interiors without steering wheels or accelerator pedals. It augmented reality displays, but they didn’t have a clear vision for the car. Even the most important issue of whether the car should be autonomous or semi-autonomous was divided. This led to project delays and internal disputes. Apple looked forward to launching the Apple Car in exactly 10 years, but it ended as a vain dream born out of excessive idealism.
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