21 December 2020

Apple's Project Titan: What Do We Know So Far?

Posted in Blogs

On January 9 2007, Apple unveils the IPhone to the whole world. This product has subsequently changed - if not defined - the postmodern era and has gone one to reign as one of the most dominant smartphones of the world. After decades of refining the IPhone to become faster and more powerful, Apple sees itself attempting to break boundaries once again with a project that is said to be called Titan.

From what we know so far, Apple has pooled in 178 billion dollars to this project and has hired around 5000 new employees in order to work for this project specifically. Apple has sought manpower from other automobile companies as well, doing things such as hiring a former Mercedes Benz R&D executive as well as incentivising Tesla employees to come over to Apple to work on project Titan itself. Such acitions signify Apple's switch to a completely new industry never before done by the company.

Reports of what the car's actual design remains in speculation; afterall, Apple is discrete about their projects. One can only get a gemeral outlook of what the car might look like based on leaks, statistical reports and patents filed out by Apple themselves. Here are some potential details based on what is reported:

  • Apple has partnered with TSMC to develop a supposed ai chip for the self-driving car - the very same people who developed the sophisticated M1 chip for Apple's recent macbooks. While this could potentially be an indication of the Apple Car involving automatic driving, driving has said themselves that their research is indeed going towards autonomous systems but it does not necessarily mean it would lead to such systems in future apple products.

  • In June 2019, Apple has purchased a self-driving vehicle startup called Drive.AI who are renowned for its deep learning to recognise and avoid objects on the road. Apple then proceeds to hire several employees from Drive.AI to work for the company. Indeed Apple is reaching out to experts to help develop the AI for its special car.

  • With 20 self-driving permits, Apple decides they cannot tackle the project alone. They decide to outsource, attempting to partner with other major automobiles companies. Only Voltswagen has agreed to the partnership, which sees Apple set on designing the self-automated systems for a corporate shuttle service. 

  • Silent motorised doors, augmented reality displays, spherical wheels, car-interior sans steering wheels and improved LIDAR sensors area are a multitude of features Apple is exploring as they attempt to conceptualise what the car would look like. However, whether such features would appear in the car is questionable as Apple executives have bickered back and forth of a steady vision of the car.