Neil Cybart 12/8/22 Neil Cybart 12/8/22

More on Project Titan, Transportation Problems, Apple Announces New Data Protections (Daily Update)

Hello everyone. There a few follow-ups related to Project Titan that are worth discussing in today's update. We will then turn to Apple’s user data protection announcements.

More on Project Titan

Apple does not have something equivalent to a “future bets” team or division tasked with coming up with futuristic technologies that may or may not be commercially viable. Instead, R&D dollars are funneled to teams and technology with a defined purpose. This is part of Apple’s collaborative culture consisting of small teams comprised of people from various disciplines and backgrounds who are given the autonomy to think differently.

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Neil Cybart 12/7/22 Neil Cybart 12/7/22

Apple’s Electric Car Plans, Apple Car Design Questions, Apple’s Largest Risk (Daily Update)

We begin today’s update with Neil’s thoughts on the Bloomberg article about Project Titan. The discussion then turns to an in-depth examination of Apple Car from a design perspective. We conclude with a look at what Neil positions as Apple’s largest risk.

Hello everyone. Happy Wednesday. We have a lot to discuss so let’s jump right in.

Apple’s Electric Car Plans

Over at Bloomberg, here’s Mark Gurman:

“Apple Inc. has scaled back ambitious self-driving plans for its future electric vehicle and postponed the car’s target launch date by about a year to 2026, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The car project, dubbed Titan inside the company, has been in limbo for the past several months as Apple executives grappled with the reality that its vision for a fully autonomous vehicle — without a steering wheel or pedals — isn’t feasible with current technology.

In a significant shift for the project, the company is now planning a less-ambitious design that will include a steering wheel and pedals and only support full autonomous capabilities on highways, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.”

Gurman’s article came across as something of a catch basin for everything we already know about Titan. Most of the details we have discussed in the past either in these updates or over at AboveAvalon.com. For example:

Apple VP of technology Kevin Lynch’s involvement (more detail here).
Apple’s vehicle proving grounds in Arizona (more detail here).
Former BMW executive and Canoo co-founder Ulrich Kranz’s involvement and Apple’s interest in the company’s unique approach to automobiles (more detail here).
Apple’s land purchases around San Jose International airport strongly pointing to being car related (more detail here). It's not clear if Apple still plans on putting affordable housing on some of the land, as Apple said it would back in 2019.
Canadian involvement regarding QNX (more detail here).
Lidar/radar usage, along with cameras.
Apple's R&D explosion over the years (more detail here).

Bloomberg once again tried to position its report as AAPL stock moving news, which is unfortunate.