Project Titan: Apple’s Transportation Ambition (Above Avalon Report)
An examination of Apple’s electric car R&D project.
Written by Neil Cybart – December 22nd, 2022
Since 2015, dozens of Above Avalon daily updates have been dedicated to discussing the latest developments involving Project Titan, Apple’s electric car R&D project. This report serves as both a summary of Titan developments to date as well as an examination of Apple’s path forward in transportation.
Rethinking Cars
What is an automobile?
How does one use an automobile?
Why do automobiles look the way they do?
Anyone who has owned or driven an automobile has formed answers to these questions over the span of their driving experiences. Ask the same questions to someone who has never driven an automobile, and the answers would be enlightening. Driving an automobile is not natural. We need to teach ourselves the art of navigating a heavy machine composed of thousands of little parts.
Is the driving learning experience focused on suppressing intuition in order for the user to adapt to a machine that hasn't changed much in decades?
Is it possible to make an automobile more intuitive so that someone with no driving experience can hop in and get to where they want to go in a much more enjoyable way than that which exists today?
Henry Ford had a very simple goal with the Model T: Set the world free.
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Apple’s Electric Car Plans, Apple Car Design Questions, Apple’s Largest Risk (Daily Update)
We begin today’s update with Neil’s thoughts on the Bloomberg article about Project Titan. The discussion then turns to an in-depth examination of Apple Car from a design perspective. We conclude with a look at what Neil positions as Apple’s largest risk.
Hello everyone. Happy Wednesday. We have a lot to discuss so let’s jump right in.
Apple’s Electric Car Plans
Over at Bloomberg, here’s Mark Gurman:
“Apple Inc. has scaled back ambitious self-driving plans for its future electric vehicle and postponed the car’s target launch date by about a year to 2026, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The car project, dubbed Titan inside the company, has been in limbo for the past several months as Apple executives grappled with the reality that its vision for a fully autonomous vehicle — without a steering wheel or pedals — isn’t feasible with current technology.
In a significant shift for the project, the company is now planning a less-ambitious design that will include a steering wheel and pedals and only support full autonomous capabilities on highways, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.”
Gurman’s article came across as something of a catch basin for everything we already know about Titan. Most of the details we have discussed in the past either in these updates or over at AboveAvalon.com. For example:
Apple VP of technology Kevin Lynch’s involvement (more detail here).
Apple’s vehicle proving grounds in Arizona (more detail here).
Former BMW executive and Canoo co-founder Ulrich Kranz’s involvement and Apple’s interest in the company’s unique approach to automobiles (more detail here).
Apple’s land purchases around San Jose International airport strongly pointing to being car related (more detail here). It's not clear if Apple still plans on putting affordable housing on some of the land, as Apple said it would back in 2019.
Canadian involvement regarding QNX (more detail here).
Lidar/radar usage, along with cameras.
Apple's R&D explosion over the years (more detail here).
Bloomberg once again tried to position its report as AAPL stock moving news, which is unfortunate.
An Above Avalon membership is required to continue reading this update. Members can read the full update here. An audio version of this update is available to members who have the podcast add-on attached to their membership. More information about the podcast add-on is found here.
(Members: Daily Updates are always accessible by logging into Slack. If you haven’t logged into Slack before, fill out this form to receive an invite.)
Above Avalon Membership
Payment is processed and secured by Stripe. Apple Pay and other mobile payment options are accepted. Special Inside Orchard bundle pricing is available for Above Avalon members.
More information about Above Avalon membership, including the full list of benefits and privileges, is available here.