Apple Car; Price, launch date, design, News

6 min readFeb 27, 2021

Apple typically doesn’t let any information slip about future products, but the Apple Car has been a huge exception. With the first rumour about its development dating back to 2015.

In fact, according to former senior vice president Tony Fadell, Steve Job actually considered creating a car in 2008! But eventually decided against it. Mainly due to the auto industry’s collapse during the economic downturn. But the automobile landscape looks much different today. Mainly due to the success of electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model 3. Also, Apple is in a much different position today.

With more than one-hundred billion dollars of cash on hand! Which they could use to fund a grand electric car project. And it appears as if they already have, according to some reliable rumours over the past few years. Apple has been fairly open about its efforts to build a car. Which is very unusual for the most private tech company in the world. And that’s mainly because they don’t really have a choice.

Read More:

Is it easy for Apple to manufacture a self-driving car?

The process of designing, testing, and manufacturing a car is extremely complicated! And requires regulatory approvals that have to be made public. Even Tim Cook himself admitted to the development of self-driving technology. Saying, “We’re focusing on autonomous systems. And clearly, one purpose of autonomous systems is self-driving cars. We kind of seeing it as the mother of all AI projects. It’s reasonably one of the most complicated AI projects actually to work on. And so autonomy is something that’s amazingly exciting for us, but we’ll see where it takes us.”

So while Cook didn’t explicitly admit that Apple’s making a car, he did admit to building self-driving technology. And when you pair that admission to the rumours and leaks over the past five years. All signs are pointing to Apple building their own car.

Let’s explore all the features we can expect from the Apple Car.

Tesla self-driving technology!

The most important, and most difficult to implement, is self-driving technology. Tesla has been the leader in this area for quite some time now. But they still haven’t achieved 100% level 5 self-driving.

They’ve opted to take a very gradual and public approach to developing the technology. By slowly rolling out new autonomous features like auto lane change and auto park over a long period of time. Eventually working their way to 100% self-driving in the coming years.

How will Apple launch its car?

But Apple appears to be taking a different approach. First, Apple wants level 5 full self-driving to be available on their car from day one. No betas, no gradual ramp in technology! Just completely safe and reliable autonomous driving that customers won’t have to worry about.

Apple car will not have steering!

Apple is using LiDAR sensors to give the car superhuman vision. But Tesla CEO Elon Musk dismissed the technology long ago! Saying, “Anyone relying on LiDAR is doomed”. But no matter what type of sensor the Apple Car utilizes! Apple is counting on it to deliver a driverless experience. In fact, some rumours have even suggested the car may not have a steering wheel at all. This is in line with early prototypes designed by Jonathan Ive himself.

Apple car will use voice to control everything!!

There are not only technical hurdles to shipping a car without a steering wheel! But also regulatory restrictions that would have to be negotiated.

The car drove itself, and the passenger would control everything with their voice through Siri. Instead of pressing buttons or turning dials. But this vision of the Apple Car may not become a reality anytime soon.

A massive sunroof and haptic feedback system!

Another unique feature! We’re excepted to see is a massive sunroof! That can be configured into a number of positions depending on the user’s preference. We’ve also seen patents for seats with haptic feedback. Allowing the driver to be alerted of warnings! Like lane drifting without the need for loud noises or visual cues that could disturb other passengers. Alongside haptic feedback would be a dynamic seating system. Where certain characteristics of the seat would change automatically depending on driving conditions. For example, the seats may adjust to a safer position when travelling at high speeds. Or the seatbelts may tighten right before an unavoidable collision.

Apple car lighting technology!

The headlights may have a special light projection system. That delivers more lighting to darker areas and less light to areas of the road that are already well-lit. When it comes to interior lighting, Apple is expected to utilize its True Tone technology to adjust the temperature of the car’s lighting to match the natural light from outside. The company has actually already implemented this technology in their 5th Avenue retail store in New York City.

Apple car can shrink and expand!!

Apple’s Car’s windshield could feature an anti-reflective layer of modulators that activate when glare is detected. And its bumpers may be retractable so that it can utilize a few extra inches of protection against collisions when driving. But shrink down when trying to park into tight spaces.

Is Apple manufacturing a new battery type?

There’re also rumours that Apple has developed a new type of mono cell battery technology! That uses lithium iron phosphate chemistry rather than the traditional lithium-ion. This should allow for a more dense battery pack that delivers more range than competing EVs, while also being less likely to overheat.

But perhaps the biggest advantage of the Apple Car will be its seamless integration with Apple’s ecosystem. Which has already proven to be in very high demand due to the success of CarPlay.

Apple’s in-car media system gives users access to their favourite apps like Apple Music, Messages, Podcasts, and Maps. But this is just a small sample of what would be possible if Apple created their own car. Not to mention plans to use AR to project helpful information onto the windshield! Like the car’s route or current speed. And motion sickness from passengers using Apple devices in the car could be mitigated by measuring the discrepancy between the car’s movement and the user’s movement.

Conclusion

There are so many ways Apple could improve the driving experience. Especially if driving were no longer required at all, and this has left many people wondering when we could expect the Apple Car to be introduced! Based on the rumours so far, it looks like we’ll have to wait at least three years. With the earliest estimate being 2024, and the latest being 2027. We don’t know exactly how much the car will cost! Although it is expected to be pricey at around fifty to sixty thousand dollars. So that is what you can expect from the Apple Car.

To read more this kind of post for free visit here: