Apple has decided to delay the launch of its Apple Car to 2026; In addition, it will not be as autonomous as initially thought.
Apple continues with its plans to launch an autonomous Apple Car, although your project has been delayed until 2026 and with a driving mode that will not be fully autonomous and will maintain the steering wheel and pedals.
According to a Bloomberg report, Apple is “winding down” its plans for the vehicle and pushing back the planned launch by a year, from 2025 to 2026. The news also claims that the car is likely to cost less than $100,000 (about 83,000 euros), something that had not been discussed to date.
It will have pedals and steering wheel
Apple wanted to completely rethink the car without a steering wheel or pedals, which would mean that it would be completely reliant on autonomous driving capabilities. However, various well-informed sources point out that the company’s leadership maintains that the technology might not be up yet.
Although Apple Car will have some advanced driver assistance features that will allow some levels of autonomous driving on the roads, it looks like Apple is settling for a vision of scale.
“The car project, nicknamed Titan within the company, has been in limbo for the past few months while Apple executives grappled with the reality that their vision of a fully autonomous vehicle, without a steering wheel or pedals, is not feasible with current technology,” says Mark Gurman, a journalist closely associated with Apple.
The expectation for the Apple Car is enormous
According to information from Bloomberg, the level of autonomous driving on the highway will be enough to allow “drivers” to play games and watch videos within the infotainment system. The car could also ask human drivers to take back control of the steering wheel when leaving the highway or in bad weather conditions.
However, the absence of level 5 autonomous driving would make the Apple Car stand out a little less from the competitionas many manufacturers now offer some level of autonomous driving.