A new report from Mark Gurman on Bloomberg brings some disappointing news about Apple’s upcoming car saying that the company has not only delayed launching the vehicle but also reduced the car's autonomous driving capability. Let's take a look.
According to the analyst, Apple has downgraded the car's autonomous driving capability to Level 2+. That’s not a standard but a few companies use that term to describe a more advanced version of Level 2, which is Partial Automation. Initial reports had claimed that Apple’s car would have Level 5 autonomous driving, which is Full Automation and does not require driver intervention. The reports that came later said that Apple had lowered its ambitions and was aiming for Level 4 autonomous driving, which is High Automation and requires some intervention from the driver. Now, it is down to Level 2+.
Why could have Apple lowered the car’s autonomous driving capabilities?
Apple has gone from offering an autonomous driving level that any brand is far from offering (in a passenger car) to offering an autonomous driving level that is lower than what some of the other cars in the market are already offering. That’s disappointing. For your reference, Tesla offers up to Level 2 autonomous driving, and Mercedes recently demoed Level 3 autonomous driving.
So, why did Apple dial down the autonomous driving features on its upcoming car? Well, the company might have taken the decision looking at the recent incidents with self-driving cars, such as the one with Cruise’s robotaxi where the fully-automated car pinned a pedestrian under the car and dragged it for quite some distance, and Apple might not want that kind of attention.
Apple car is delayed by two more years, the project is now running 10 years late
Mark also reveals that Apple is now planning to unveil the car in 2028, which is two years later than when the company had previously planned to unveil the vehicle. For your reference, Initial reports said that the company was planning to unveil the car in 2019. So, Apple is already running almost ten years late.
According to Mark, the latest decision from Apple is a pivotal moment for the project, and the company has reached a make-or-break point. He says “Either the company is finally able to deliver this product with reduced expectations or top executives may seriously reconsider the project’s existence.”
