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Apple 'plans to develop self-driving passenger car by 2024 and eyes breakthrough monocell battery technology to extend its range before it needs to be recharged'

Apple is moving forward with self-driving car technology, targeting 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle, sources told Reuters.

The car reportedly will be powered by breakthrough 'monocell' battery technology that could radically reduce cost and increase the vehicle's range before a recharge is needed.

Sources say they expect the company to rely on a manufacturing partner to build vehicles, which would then be Apple-branded. 

There's also the possibility it would focus on an autonomous-driving system which would be offered through a traditional carmaker.

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Apple is moving forward with a driverless car, with an expected rollout date of 2024, sources say. The car reportedly will be powered by monocell battery technology that is both cheaper and will increase the vehicle's range

 Apple is moving forward with a driverless car, with an expected rollout date of 2024, sources say. The car reportedly will be powered by monocell battery technology that is both cheaper and will increase the vehicle's range

The iPhone maker's automotive efforts, known as Project Titan, have proceeded unevenly since 2014 when it first started to design its own vehicle from scratch. 

At one point, Apple withdrew to focus on software and reassessed its goals.  

Doug Field, an Apple veteran who had worked at Tesla, returned to oversee the project in 2018 and laid off 190 people from the team in 2019. 

Since then, Apple has progressed enough that it now aims to build a vehicle for consumers, two people familiar with the effort said, asking not to be named because Apple's plans are not public. 

Manufacturing an automobile will be a supply-chain challenge even for deep-pocketed Apple, which makes hundreds of millions of electronic devices each year. Shown; Apple CEO Tim Cook shows off the iPhone 12 in October 2020

Manufacturing an automobile will be a supply-chain challenge even for deep-pocketed Apple, which makes hundreds of millions of electronic devices each year. Shown; Apple CEO Tim Cook shows off the iPhone 12 in October 2020

The company's goal of building a personal vehicle for the mass market contrasts with rivals such as Alphabet Inc's Waymo, which is manufacturing robo-taxis for a driverless ride-hailing service.

Central to Apple's strategy is a new battery design that could 'radically' reduce the cost of batteries and increase the vehicle's range, according to a third person who has seen Apple's battery design.

Apple declined to comment on its plans or future products.

Making a vehicle represents a supply chain challenge even for deep-pocketed Apple, which makes hundreds of millions of electronics each year with parts from around the world. 

It took Elon Musk's Tesla 17 years before it finally turned a sustained profit making automobiles.

'If there is one company on the planet that has the resources to do that, it's probably Apple. But at the same time, it's not a cellphone,' said a person who worked on Project Titan.

It remains unclear who would assemble an Apple-branded car, but sources have said they expect the company to rely on a manufacturing partner to build vehicles. 

And there is still a chance Apple will decide to reduce the scope of its efforts to an autonomous driving system that would be integrated with a car made by a traditional automaker.

Two people with knowledge of Apple's plans warned pandemic-related delays could push the start of production into 2025 or beyond.

Apple has decided to tap outside partners for elements of the system, including lidar  (Light Detection and Ranging) sensors, which help self-driving cars get a three-dimensional view of the road, two sources familiar with the company's plans said.

Apple's car might feature multiple lidar sensors for scanning different distances, another person said. 

Some sensors could be derived from Apple's internally developed lidar units, that person said. Apple's iPhone 12 Pro and iPad Pro models released this year both feature lidar sensors.

Reuters previously reported that Apple had held talks with potential lidar suppliers, but it was also examining building its own sensor.

As for the car's battery, Apple plans to use a unique 'monocell' design that bulks up the individual cells in the battery and frees up space inside the battery pack by eliminating pouches and modules that hold battery materials, one of the people said.

Apple's design means that more active material can be packed inside the battery, giving the car a potentially longer range. 

Apple is also examining a chemistry for the battery called LFP, or lithium iron phosphate, the person said, which is inherently less likely to overheat and is thus safer than other types of lithium-ion batteries.

'It's next level,' the person said of Apple's battery technology. 'Like the first time you saw the iPhone.'

Apple had previously talked with Magna International about manufacturing a car, but those discussions petered out as Apple's plans became unfocused, a person familiar with those previous efforts said. 

Magna did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

To turn a profit, automotive contract manufacturers often ask for volumes that could pose a challenge even to Apple, which would be a newcomer to the automotive market.

Back in 2015, Apple board member Mickey Drexler told Business Insider that Steve Jobs considered building a car before he died. 

A concept video that made the rounds in 2016 revealed a prototype with a wide dashboard display, connectivity to other Apple devices, and the company's trademark minimalist design.

Industry gossip claims Apple has tasked more than 1,000 engineers to work on 'Project Titan' in a lab in Sunnydale, California.

Elon Musk told the BBC that Apple's plans to compete with Tesla are an 'open secret.'

'It's pretty hard to hide something if you hire over a thousand engineers to do it,' Musk said.      

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