Hit the brakes, Apple Car will hit the road a lot later than expected

Last week we got the first concrete news that an Apple Car might be hitting our roads in 2024. That news now seems slightly premature, as fabled Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that Apple car won’t be launched until 2025 at the earliest, with indications that it could be 2027 or even later.

The Apple car has been rumored to be in development for around six years already, with speculation saying it will be self-driving and all-electric. Kuo himself had estimated a 2023 to 2025 timeline for release, but that was based on the facts two years ago. It’s unclear if the coronavirus pandemic is the main reason for the delay or if other developmental concerns caused the revised timeline.

At the beginning of 2020, we were wrong-footed by reports that the autonomous, scanner-festooned cars driven around by Apple were part of Apple Maps’ redesign. Not to say they weren’t also doing that, but it now seems that the Apple Car project was still underway, training Apple hardware to see the road and respond to traffic conditions.

With Apple silicon showing that it’s a powerhouse in both normal and AI workloads, it’s a fair bet that its own hardware will power any future Apple car. That might give them the edge over competitors, which all use third-party chips to power their self-driving modules. Apple has shown time and time again that having control over the entire stack from hardware to software pays dividends, so we expect the self-driving portion of the Apple car to be capable.

Will the rest of the car match up? Apple has been known for its design chops, but with Jony Ive leaving to pursue his own projects, what does that mean for the future of Apple design? I guess we’ll see once it hits the road.

Think the Apple Car will come sooner than expected? Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere. His hobbies include photography, animation, and hoarding Reddit gold.