Apple Reportedly Planning To Debut Its Self-Driving Car In 2025

It’s been a while since we heard anything substantial about Apple’s Project Titan electric vehicle, apart from a certain mishap back in September which involved one of its prototypes. Now, a new report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claims to have acquired new information regarding the company’s first EV from people who are familiar with the matter.

As we’ve already covered when rumours regarding Project Titan first surfaced, Apple’s first EV is believed to be fully autonomous rather than a conventional one with semi-autonomous features. According to the insiders, new Project Titan lead Kevin Lynch insisted that the first model should be able to drive itself. 

Gurman’s latest report cites several sources supporting this particular tidbit, as well as the company’s aim to debut the vehicle in 2025. In regards to the latter, earlier rumours suggested that Apple originally envisioned to debut the car in 2024, but the plan was supposedly pushed back to sometime between 2025 and 2027.

Whether the company is able to meet the 2025 launch window for its EV mainly depends on whether it can complete its fully autonomous system on time, the insiders noted. Progress-wise, sources claim that Apple has supposedly finished much of the “core work” on the car’s processor.

Other than that, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that Apple plans to have its first EV to feature a lounge-like interior with a touchscreen infotainment system in the middle, but would lack a steering wheel or pedals. This further suggests that the vehicle would act as a fully-autonomous passenger shuttle rather than a standard car. In terms of safety, the sources added that the company intends to include a manual override mode in case of emergencies.

With four more years to go, it will definitely be a while until Apple is expected to officially announce or showcase its first ever EV. A fully autonomous system is indeed possible to an extent with current technology, but most of these rely on dedicated pathings with little to no interference or interaction with human-based traffic. That being said, it is not known whether the company’s vehicle is intended to be used on the road or for smaller-scaled use cases (such as in-campus transportation).

Tesla App Outage Causes Owners To Lose Access To Car Features

Tesla experienced a server downtime for its mobile phone app earlier today. The outage, which lasted several hours, left owners from across the globe unable to connect to their cars – losing access to certain features offered exclusively via the app.

Motoring website Electrek notes that the downtime coincidentally came shortly after the automaker rolled out an update to its application, although it is undetermined if this was actually the root cause of the problem. Company CEO Elon Musk later revealed in a tweet that the outage may have been caused by an “accidental increase of network traffic verbosity”. Concurrently, he also apologised and noted that the company will take measures to ensure that such problems will not happen again.

Naturally, the app outage also resulted in a flurry of complaints coming from owners worldwide. As mentioned earlier, users are locked away from accessing advanced features such as vehicle summoning, remote unlocking and activation, and interior climate controls.

Some owners even reported to have been left stranded due to their inability to unlock or start their cars via the Tesla app, which is likely an exaggeration. While it does offer the aforementioned abilities, users can still unlock and start their vehicles with their phones through an active Bluetooth connection, provided that they did not log out from the app. Alternatively, this issue can also be bypassed if the owner is carrying the car’s keycard or keyfob along with them.

Thankfully for the owners, their first world-related woes had been resolved by the company, albeit a couple of hours later. Aside from Musk’s reply in Twitter, Tesla itself has yet to issue an official statement regarding the matter.

Samsung Uses UWB To Turn Galaxy Phones Into Digital Car Keys

After announcing it earlier this year, Samsung is finally adding support for using certain Galaxy flagship smartphones as digital keys to unlock your vehicles. Known as Samsung Digital Key, the new feature uses Ultra Wide Band (UWB) and NFC to enable “passive entry”, meaning that the car will unlock when you’re nearby without you needing to take out your phone, similar to Apple’s car keys introduced last year.

Samsung’s iteration will launch by the end of this year in South Korea and will initially support only one car model for now, which is the Genesis GV60. Interestingly, the car already comes with several smart features of its own, including a built-in face scanner on the side of the car known as Face Connect, and a fingerprint scanner. Both of which are used to biometrically verify the driver’s identity without requiring a physical key.

Back to Samsung’s new tech, the digital key also uses the company’s embedded Secure Element (eSE) technology to protect sensitive information, and is stored in the Samsung Pass app. The company says that using UWB as a car key prevents potential relay attacks, meaning thieves can’t start your car without having your physical phone in the vehicle. Additionally, the key can be shared with friends and family with the ability to set a time limit, and even allows each driver to preset seat and mirror positions when they get in the car.

When the feature was announced, Samsung revealed four automaker partners — Audi, BMW, Ford, and Genesis. With that in mind, we can expect the Samsung Digital Key to be compatible with the other brands some time in the future, although their expected rollout has not be revealed as of yet. The Galaxy devices that come with UWB are the Galaxy S21+, Galaxy S21 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold2, Galaxy Z Fold3, and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

Huawei Looking To Attain Driverless Car Tech By 2025

We now know a bit more about Huawei’s automotive ambitions. Previously known mostly for its smartphones, the Chinese tech giant is planning to attain driverless passenger car technology by 2025.

“Our team’s goal is to reach true driverless passenger cars in 2025,” said Wang Jun, a senior executive at Huawei’s smart vehicle unit, at an industry conference, according to a Reuters report.

Huawei and its smartphone business became a frequent target of US sanctions during the Trump years. The company remains in Washington’s bad books even under the Biden administration. Seeking to adapt, it recently pivoted to automobiles, pouring over US$1 billion (~RM4.1 billion) into researching and developing self-driving and electric car technologies.

It also announced that it would collaborate with three automakers to produce self-driving cars with the Huawei name as a sub-brand. Recently, it was reportedly broadening its partnership with one of the aforementioned automakers, Changan Automobile, to include the design and development of automotive chips.

Huawei’s 2025 target for self-driving tech puts it slightly behind fellow Chinese companies Baidu and Geely, which through their joint venture Jidu Auto, aim to launch an “intelligent” electric vehicle (EV) with autonomous driving technology in about three years (2024).

Huawei To Expand Car Collaboration With Changan To Include Making Automotive Chips

Huawei is broadening its existing smart car partnership with government-owned Changan Automobile to include the design and development of automotive chips, sources told Reuters.

For months, both companies have been informally working together on chips, two sources told Reuters. Another source claimed that the companies might soon enter a joint venture dedicated to chip development.

The move does seem natural as the global automotive industry has seen crippling production delays due to an ongoing shortage of semiconductor chips. Major chip producers see the shortage lasting into next year.

Also, last month, Huawei announced that it would collaborate with three automakers to produce self-driving cars with the Huawei name as a sub-brand. Changan is one of those automakers. The company has worked on developing its own chips, but hasn’t gotten far, two sources told Reuters.

Huawei’s smart car collaboration with Changan involves the former providing the vehicle’s operating system and cabin technologies while latter is assigned vehicle design and engineering.

Huawei’s pivot to the automotive industry comes after its core smartphone business was wrecked by US sanctions enacted by former US President Donald Trump. In April, the company said it would spend over US$1 billion (~RM4.1 billion) to research and develop self-driving and electric car technologies.

Uber And Arrival To Develop Electric Car Specifically For E-Hailing Industry

E-hailing pioneer Uber will be partnering with UK electric vehicle (EV) company Arrival to develop an affordable electric car specifically made for e-hailing drivers. The new vehicle is expected to enter production in the third quarter of 2023 (Q3 2023).

Arrival said it would be involving Uber drivers in the design process over the coming months to ensure the vehicle meets the needs of working drivers and their passengers. The company expects to unveil the final design for the car before the end of this year.

Uber’s involvement here seems natural, given the launch of its Clean Air Plan two years ago. The company said it has raised over £135 million (~RM775.8 million) to help drivers with the cost of switching to a fully electric vehicle. It has committed to becoming a fully electric mobility platform in London by 2025 and across North America and Europe by 2030.

The e-hailing pioneer recently launched Uber Green in London, allowing passengers to select a fully electric vehicle at no extra cost, while drivers pay a lower service fee. The company wants to double the number of drivers in EVs by the end of this year as part of its efforts to make all cars on its app fully electric by 2025.

Lyft Sells Its Self-Driving Car Division To Toyota For US$550 Million

E-hailing company Lyft announced plans to sell its self-driving technology division, called Level 5, to Toyota for US$550 million (~RM2.3 billion). Because of the deal, the firm expects to achieve profitability at an earlier date.

According to Reuters, the sale would allow Lyft to focus on hosting the technology of self-driving firms on its platform through partnerships as opposed to internally developing the expensive technology which has yet to become mainstream.

Lyft will get paid $US200 million (~RM819.7 million) upfront, with US$350 million (~RM1.4 billion) in payments to follow over a five-year period. The transaction, which is still subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

The e-hailing company reported a loss of US$458.2 million (~RM1.9 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2020. If the deal goes through on time and COVID-19 recovery continues, it expects to achieve profit in the third quarter of this year.

Under the deal, Lyft’s Level 5 team would join Toyota subsidiary Woven Planet, which works on connected vehicle, autonomous and semi-autonomous driving technology. Woven Planet is a new entity, established only in January.

Reuters noted that Lyft already allows people to book rides in self-driving vehicles in some cities thanks to partnerships with Alphabet’s Waymo and Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai Motor and Aptiv.

Huawei Is Pouring US$1 Billion Into Car Tech R&D This Year

Huawei announced over US$1 billion (~RM4.1 billion) investment into researching and developing self-driving and electric car technologies, following in the footsteps of other Chinese tech companies eager to make a name in the automotive business.

According to Bloomberg, Huawei’s Deputy Chairman and Rotating Chairman Eric Xu noted that the company’s self-driving technology is ahead of Tesla in allowing cars to cruise for over 1,000km without human intervention.

Xu also said that the company would initially collaborate with three automakers to produce self-driving cars with the Huawei name as a sub-brand. This is apparently akin to how Intel has its logo on PCs. Huawei’s three partners are BAIC Group, Chongqing Changan Automobile Co, and Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.

Naturally, Huawei is very optimistic about its chances in the Chinese market.

“China adds 30 million cars each year and the number is growing. Even if we don’t tap the market outside of China, if we can earn an average CNY 10,000 (~RM 6,315) from each car sold in China, that’s already a very big business for Huawei,” Xu said.

But it may soon find itself in a very crowded market. Rival Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is already working on a smart electric vehicle (EV). And Chinese search giant Baidu has partnered with Geely to make electric cars as well.

Huawei has been aggressively trying to diversify out of the smartphone business after being pummelled by continuing US sanctions. Just last month, the Biden administration tightened 5G restrictions on its US suppliers. While Huawei recently admitted the damage it suffered from sanctions, but once again reiterated that it doesn’t answer to Beijing.

Spotify iOS Code Reveals Car Thing Hardware

Hardware may be the last thing that you’d associate with Spotify. But it looks like the company has something planned, called simply the Car Thing. And it’s quite difficult to describe what it actually is.

MacRumors reports that images of the Car Thing were found in the code of Spotify on iOS. On one hand, it looks similar to what was previously found in the US FCC. But on the other, it looks quite different to what the company showed back in 2019.

All things considered, it’s not quite known what it actually does. And all we have to go by is its description in the FCC filing. And it reads “voice controlled accessory for phone/Spotify App with supporting display and buttons”. The filing also points out that the Car Thing is Bluetooth-enabled, can communicate with in-car units, and is powered by a 12V outlet, which likely refers to the cigarette lighter socket.

The iOS code also indicates that the Spotify Car Thing has a number of different mounts. These possibly reflect the common in-car phone mounts that let you attach your phone to either the top of the dashboard or an air conditioner vent.

It remains to be seen if Spotify will release this funky piece of hardware. If it does, it will probably need a different name. Or it can just throw a curve ball and go with the Car Thing.

Geely Forms New Electric Car Company Called Zeekr

Chinese automaker Geely announced that it has established a new electric car company called Zeekr. Positioned towards the higher end of the EV (electric vehicle) market, Zeekr is aimed at challenging the dominance of US-based rival Tesla, Reuters said.

Geely expects the first vehicles from its subsidiary to be delivered in the third quarter of this year. Zeekr apparently wants to deliver one new electric vehicle to market every year for the coming five years. And in case you’re wondering, the Chinese name of Zeekr is Ji Ke.

The new electric car company will be a 51%-49% joint venture between Geely and its parent Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, with an initial investment of 2 billion yuan (~RM1.3 billion). Zeekr will focus on the Chinese market at first and then explore opportunities for exports.

It has been an extremely busy year for the automotive industry, with carmakers as well as tech giants making a mad dash for the rapidly growing EV market. Geely itself earlier formed an electric car company with the Chinese search giant Baidu. The carmaker also teamed up with Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn to provide automakers with consulting services on EV technologies.

News of Zeekr’s formation comes after Geely announced its financial results for last year. Profits dropped by a hefty 32% compared to 2019 – a trend largely driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, the company may be finding that the traditional car market is slowly but surely drying up.

Foxconn Discussing Electric Car Partnership With Vietnam’s VinFast

Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn is engaged in early discussions with Vietnamese automaker VinFast over a potential electric vehicle (EV) partnership, sources told Reuters.  Speaking anonymously, they revealed that Foxconn is keen to buy VinFast’s EV production lines.

VinFast, which is Vietnam’s first fully-fledged domestic carmaker, is a fairly young automaker as it only founded in 2017. That being said, the company has a solid background since it is a subsidiary of Vingroup JSC which is a massive conglomerate founded by the country’s first billionaire, Phạm Nhật Vượng.

But one source said that VinFast is instead leaning towards a partnership – the company wants to brand itself as an eco-friendly automaker and keep its EV business. While Foxconn apparently declined to comment on this matter, a VinFast’s spokesperson has told Reuters that it has indeed received proposals from the Taiwanese manufacturer but nothing has been set on the stone at the moment and the discussion towards batteries as well as electric car parts.

Known by many for its work on iPhone, Foxconn has recently been making aggressive forays into the automotive market. In January, it linked arms with Chinese automaker Geely to provide contract manufacturing and electric vehicle consulting services for other carmakers.

Then, last month, it reached a deal codenamed “PROJECT PEAR” to build electric vehicles for US electric car company Fisker.

Foxconn Chairman Liu Young-way said in October last year that the company wants to provide components or services to 10% of the world’s electric vehicles by 2025 to 2027, Reuters noted.

Apple itself is eager to enter the electric vehicle market, reportedly planning a 2024 launch for its car project. To that end, Apple allegedly entered talks with carmakers like Hyundai and Nissan, but those discussions have fizzled out for now.

Hyundai, Kia Say They Are Not In Talks With Apple To Develop Self-Driving Car

Hyundai Motor and its subsidiary Kia Motors stated that they are not in talks with Apple to develop a self-driving car according to a regulatory filing. This follows much speculation about the fate of the possible collaboration after talks between Apple and Hyundai were reportedly paused.

“Hyundai Motor is not in talks with Apple on autonomous vehicle development,” the automaker declared in the said regulatory filing which was translated by CNBC.

“Hyundai Motor is getting requests from multiple companies for cooperation in the joint development of autonomous, electric vehicles but nothing has been decided since it’s in early stage,” the firm said. Its subsidiary Kia Motors also said it wasn’t talking to Apple in a similar filing.

Some analysts have theorized that leaks about the collaboration could’ve ultimately scuttled it. Apple has been famously (or notoriously) a stickler for secrecy – especially when it comes to its future offerings.

So, the company was “probably not happy” that news of the potential collaboration was leaked out to the local and international media, explained Sung Yop Chung, regional head of automobiles and components at Daiwa Capital Markets.  Sung also said that Hyundai and Kia could’ve faced a conflict of interest because they “don’t really want to just become a subcontractor of Apple.”

Apple is said to be developing its first self-driving electric car under an initiative it has codenamed Project Titan. Recently, it even poached a top Porsche official to help with the project. Many tech companies, like Tencent and Baidu, are already exploring the electric and/or self-driving vehicle markets through partnerships with traditional carmakers such as Geely.