Previously, it was reported that Apple had expanded the timeline for sending Project Titan. For those unfamiliar with the project, it’s Apple Car’s self-driving car and the company hopes to launch the car sometime in 2025.
Apple’s goal was clear, to build a fully self-driving vehicle, the first versions of the car possibly limiting self-driving capabilities for steering and acceleration.
In case you’re wondering what an Apple Car might look like, British car rental company Vanarama (via MacRumors) has created a render of the vehicle based on an “original patent filed by Apple” and previously released Apple devices.
This doesn’t mean that the leasing company has nailed the design, but it’s a moderate guess that shows off what the Apple Car will look like.
Some of the features based on Apple’s patents include interior seating arrangements that allow the seat to rotate, use of the Siri digital assistant, rear hinged coach doors, and an adjustable dashboard/navigation screen. The handle on the door is retractable and looks like the buttons found on iPhones.
The mesh used on the car’s grille looks like the circular vet found on the Mac Pro, and even includes a glowing Apple logo similar to the one commonly found on MacBooks. And if the opaque white finish looks familiar, it’s because Apple debuted color with the 2010 iPhone 4.
Developing a sales and service team for a car is a lot different from developing an iPhone. Apple lost too many of its key executives who had worked on Project Titan.
Apple recently lost Michael Schwekutsch, Apple Car’s senior engineering director. The former Tesla executive left Apple for Archer Aviation, a startup for electric air taxis, and had joined Apple in 2019 after leaving Tesla.
Apple did add former Tesla executive Christopher “CJ” Moore to its team. But just days ago three key engineers rolled out including Apple’s chief engineer for radar systems Eric Rogers, who joined Joby Aviation Inc. Some of the engineers who left Apple to join companies involved in air taxis include Alex Clarabut, who is engineering manager for the team’s battery systems group and has accepted a job at Archer Aviation.
The third former Apple Car team member to join Archer recently is former Apple Car hardware engineering manager Stephen Spiteri. While the public sees the Apple Car as a relatively new project, Apple has reportedly been working on it for over seven years. Its competitors in the business include Tesla, of course, and Volkswagen, the German automaker investing in self-driving car concepts.
