Photo: Emre Husmen via Behance
Now that the Apple Car is no more, Apple can look back at the project and decide what to keep from the decade of work on new technologies, patents, and ideas that might never come to fruition. As it turns out, Project Titan could also provide Apple with an insanely fast chip.
If you're new to the Apple world, you must know that the iPhone maker is now building its own chips using an Apple Silicon team. Chips are typically called "M," followed by a number representing the generation.
Today's fastest chip is the M2 Ultra installed on the Mac Studio and the Mac Pro. While these numbers might not tell you much if you're not a tech-savvy person, an M2 Ultra comprises 134 billion transistors, sporting a 24-core GPU and a 32-core Neural Engine. It's state-of-the-art technology that makes Apple's most powerful devices even more powerful.
The Apple Car was supposed to push everything to a new level. Apple wanted the Apple Car to be insanely fast, not as in speed but as in how fast it processes the operations the driver and passengers throw at it.
You can imagine how important it is for a smart car to run everything instantly, and Apple wanted the Apple Car to excel on this front. The iPhone maker wanted the Apple Car to sport Level 5 autonomous driving, so a fast chip was mandatory. The Apple Silicon team pushed the performance figures through the roof with a chip that offered the specs of four combined M2 Ultra chips.
The M2 Ultra is already super-fast, so increasing its performance by four times makes it a monster that Apple is unlikely to ignore in the long term. Sources with knowledge of the matter said the work on this chip was nearly finished, so while the Apple Car has already been ditched, the custom chip could still be finalized to make its way to other products.
Apple tries to do the same thing with as much technology as possible from the Apple Car project. The company had already dissolved the Apple Car team, and part of the 2,000 employees had moved to other divisions, including artificial intelligence. Others left the company, mainly to work for carmakers, especially if they joined Apple specifically to work on the development of the vehicle.
Apple has never discussed its automotive ambitions publicly, but the strategy now revolves around Apple Maps and CarPlay. A new-generation CarPlay will launch later this year, with Aston Martin and Porsche to pioneer its adoption. More carmakers are expected to follow in their footsteps, and I expect Apple to disclose more names at WWDC in the spring. The new CarPlay experience should also receive more stage time at the next iPhone's unveiling in the fall.
Today's fastest chip is the M2 Ultra installed on the Mac Studio and the Mac Pro. While these numbers might not tell you much if you're not a tech-savvy person, an M2 Ultra comprises 134 billion transistors, sporting a 24-core GPU and a 32-core Neural Engine. It's state-of-the-art technology that makes Apple's most powerful devices even more powerful.
The Apple Car was supposed to push everything to a new level. Apple wanted the Apple Car to be insanely fast, not as in speed but as in how fast it processes the operations the driver and passengers throw at it.
You can imagine how important it is for a smart car to run everything instantly, and Apple wanted the Apple Car to excel on this front. The iPhone maker wanted the Apple Car to sport Level 5 autonomous driving, so a fast chip was mandatory. The Apple Silicon team pushed the performance figures through the roof with a chip that offered the specs of four combined M2 Ultra chips.
The M2 Ultra is already super-fast, so increasing its performance by four times makes it a monster that Apple is unlikely to ignore in the long term. Sources with knowledge of the matter said the work on this chip was nearly finished, so while the Apple Car has already been ditched, the custom chip could still be finalized to make its way to other products.
Apple tries to do the same thing with as much technology as possible from the Apple Car project. The company had already dissolved the Apple Car team, and part of the 2,000 employees had moved to other divisions, including artificial intelligence. Others left the company, mainly to work for carmakers, especially if they joined Apple specifically to work on the development of the vehicle.
Apple has never discussed its automotive ambitions publicly, but the strategy now revolves around Apple Maps and CarPlay. A new-generation CarPlay will launch later this year, with Aston Martin and Porsche to pioneer its adoption. More carmakers are expected to follow in their footsteps, and I expect Apple to disclose more names at WWDC in the spring. The new CarPlay experience should also receive more stage time at the next iPhone's unveiling in the fall.
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