Author 丨 Yang Jing
Responsible editor 丨 Cui Liwen
Editor 丨Zhu Jinbin
Apple cars that are half-covered by pipas have finally made new progress. A few days ago, Bloomberg news said that Desi Ujkashevic, a senior engineer who has been working for Ford for more than 30 years, has left Ford and chosen to join Apple to work on the Apple car project.
Desi Ujkashevic has extensive expertise in safety systems, engineering, interior engineering, etc., including achieving cost, profit, quality and time targets. She also served as Global Director of Ford's Office of Automotive Safety Engineering, where she was involved in the development of Ford Escape, Explorer, Fiesta, and Focus, in addition to electric vehicle development.
For the past few years, Apple has been regularly hiring from Ford and other car companies to develop fully autonomous vehicles. Apple's car project has been facing leadership issues, so Apple's goals have also changed several times, and the addition of Desi Ujkashevic can help its electric vehicle development escort.
Apple wants Apple cars to be safer than Tesla and Waymo's cars and equipped with backup systems to avoid driving system failures. The latest news says that Apple may entrust its long-term partner Hon Hai to take charge of the assembly and production of Apple cars, while Apple cars will still be released as planned at the end of 2024 or 2025.
"The Next Star Product"
In 2014, Apple began its "Project Titan," or Titan Project, which builds cars, with more than 1,000 automotive experts and engineers developing electric cars at a secret location near Apple's Cupertino headquarters. But because of internal conflicts and leadership issues, Apple's auto project has changed several times over the past few years.
Although there were rumors in 2016 that Apple had shelved its car-building plans, by 2020, it was starting all over again. There are current rumors that Apple is developing a fully autonomous driverless car that can be driven without user intervention, hoping to design a car without a steering wheel and pedals, which is farther than any other automaker to date.
It seems like an ambitious and ambitious project. Currently, John Giannandrea, Apple's head of AI and machine learning, is leading apple car projects, and Kevin Lynch, known for his Apple Watch, has also joined the automotive team, which is said to be primarily responsible for driving self-driving cars.
It is reported that there is a high-performance chip designed by Apple itself in Apple's car, which is the most advanced component developed by Apple so far. It's made of neural processors that can handle the incredible AI loads needed for self-driving cars. TSMC is expected to make the chip, and TSMC is also making chips for iPhones, iPads and Macs.
Since Apple has no experience in car manufacturing, it needs partners to produce cars, and Apple is said to be working to secure partnerships in the automotive industry. The latest news is that Hon Hai Group, the parent company of "Foxconn", has been entrusted with OEM production, but Foxconn has said that it will not comment on market rumors.
Apple cars are hailed as Apple's "next star product," offering "better hardware, software, and service integration" than potential competitors in the automotive market. Apple cars are likely to be sold in the form of "very high-end" models or "significantly above" standard electric vehicles.
From the perspective of multiple information, the starting price of Apple cars will be more than 100,000 US dollars (about 660,000 yuan), which means that Apple's benchmark product will be Tesla's Model S. Of course, luxury car brands such as BBA will be competitors of Apple Cars.
In June 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke publicly about Apple's work on self-driving software, confirming the company's work in a rare moment of candor. Apple doesn't often share details of its work, but when it comes to automotive software, it's hard to keep it mysterious due to regulations.
"We focus on self-developed systems, which is a core technology that we think is very important. We see it as the mother of all AI projects, and it's probably one of the most difficult AI projects in practice. ”
Apple has been testing self-driving cars on public roads in California since early 2017, using several 2015 Lexus RX450hs leased from Hertz. As Apple prepares its self-driving software, it has been adding test vehicles over the years, and Apple currently has more than 60 test vehicles on the road.
Apple aims to launch its self-driving car by 2025, but given the complexity and difficulty of the project, it may not reach the target date, or it may eventually be delayed.
More advanced than Tesla
Apple once planned two self-driving paths, one with limited self-driving capabilities and the other with fully autonomous driving capabilities, and Apple has now decided to take the second path under the leadership of Kevin Lynch. Once successful, Apple's fully autonomous vehicles will be a goal that other automakers such as Tesla have yet to achieve.
In Apple's vision, the fully autonomous car is similar to The Design of Canopy's Lifestyle Vehicle. But because this idea is too far ahead of its time, it may be that the final mass-produced version of Apple's car will eventually look like a traditional car. This includes the use of a large central control screen that users can interact with and will integrate with Apple's current devices and services.
The processor being developed for the car was created by Apple's Silicon Engineering Group, which also created processors for the M1 Mac, iPhone and other devices. It is said to consist of neural processors capable of handling the requirements of artificial intelligence for autonomous driving, and the chip may require a complex internal cooling system when power consumption is high.
Some analysts have suggested that the chip could be named "C1", possibly based on the A12 bionic processor. However, Apple's self-developed new generation of A16 application processor has completed the design finalization, is expected to be equipped with more than 16 core neural network engines, using TSMC 4nmN4P process, and has now begun to shoot a small amount.
In terms of batteries, Apple cars can be compatible with mainstream charging systems, and adopting the same standard will allow Apple cars to use existing charging stations. In addition, Apple is developing a new battery design that has the potential to "fundamentally" reduce battery costs and increase the vehicle's range.
In Apple's vision, it's a "single-cell" design that will add individual cells and free up space inside the battery pack by removing bags and modules that hold the battery material. This will allow for more active materials to be used in smaller packages, a battery technology described as "the first time you see an iPhone."
After solving these hardware and software problems, the only question now is who will do the OEM to produce Apple cars. According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple's initial car chassis may be based on a modern E-GMP electric vehicle (BEV) platform that uses up to two motors, a five-link rear suspension, an integrated drive axle, fully chargable follow-up range of more than 500 kilometers, and high-speed charging for 18 minutes to charge up to 80%.
The partnership with Hyundai will give Apple access to an established automaker capable of producing cars in North America, and Hyundai is willing to give Apple control over the software and hardware of Apple cars. Apple plans to launch a full-fledged Apple-branded car, rather than a Kia model that includes Apple's software, but that plan has been shelved for now.
The latest information is the partnership with Foxconn, which also recently launched an electric vehicle chassis and software platform to help automakers bring models to market faster. Last year Foxconn announced a $230 million acquisition of an auto assembly plant for electric vehicle company Lordstown Motors in Ohio, hoping to produce electric vehicles in North America.
Of course, Apple may also choose to build its own vehicles, after all, the first generation of Apple Cars is expensive, and it is not aimed at the mass consumer market, so the production scale in the early stage does not need to be too large. Even so, referring to the hot sales of Apple's other electronic products, it can be seen that companies in the supply chain are still eager for Apple.
Even after Apple reported the news of car manufacturing in 2014, Apple has been hiding it, and there is no quasi-letter, "What car to build?" How to build? When will mass production hit the road? "None of this, and the answer may really have to wait until 2025."