The Apple car will not be ready for at least half a decade

Rumors about Apple’s work on a standalone car have grown in recent weeks, but the project is still in its infancy and it will be years before an Apple car is launched, according to a new report by Bloomberg.

Sources with knowledge about Apple’s product plans said Bloomberg that it will take Apple “at least half a decade” to launch an autonomous electric vehicle.

Apple has a small team of hardware engineers working on drive systems, vehicle interiors and exterior car designs, with the goal of eventually delivering a vehicle to customers.

Apple’s car plans have changed several times over the years, and just a few years ago, rumors indicated that Apple had decided to give up developing a complete car and instead focused on a system of autonomous driving that could also be provided to other car manufacturers.

As development has continued, Apple is once again focusing on the more ambitious goal of creating an entire vehicle. The car team aims to create a self-driving vehicle that allows a user to enter their destination and be driven there with “little or no other commitment”.

The machine is not close to the production stage and could be ready in five to seven years, although the deadlines may change. Apple also continues to pursue an auto-driving system for a third-party partner, so the company could still choose to end the development of its own car.

‌Apple Car‌ employees currently work from home or spend limited time in the office, which seems to slow down the work on the vehicle project. Apple has a wide range of automotive experts working on the project, as pointed out by Bloomberg.

This includes former Tesla vice president of interior design Steve MacManus, a safety expert in automatic driving and former Waymo employee Jaime Waydo, and former Tesla vice president Michael Schwekutsch, who worked on engines and transmissions. Apple recently hired Jonathan Sive, a BMW vehicle engineer who also worked at Tesla and Waymo, and Stuart Bowers, another former Tesla vice president.

Vehicle-related job listings suggest that Apple’s employment is growing, the Cupertino-based company is looking for employees with experience in wireless communications, LED lighting, high-voltage battery systems and more.

A recent report from Reuters suggested that Apple aims to launch a car in 2024, but this timeline sounds ambitious based on new information from Bloomberg. Reuters said that Apple is developing a new battery design that will reduce costs and increase autonomy and has also worked with car supply companies.

Another report indicated that Apple is designing a custom chip for the “Apple Car” that TSMC will manufacture and Bloomberg confirms that Johny Srouji’s team is developing a custom arm-based chip with a focus on machine learning processing to run the self-driving car system.

Apple is likely to use a production partner to build the vehicles, but it remains unclear which company could enter into an agreement with Apple. Rumors in 2016 indicated that Apple was in talks with Magna International, but the talks ended because Apple’s plans at the time were unclear.