Drivers won’t be hitting the highways in Apple’s self-driving vehicle at all this decade.
Apple has reportedly pushed back the goal launch date of its secretive electric car project that has been in the works since 2014. Previous rumors claimed Project Titan is aiming for an unveiling in 2019, but it may have hit a speed bump.
The target date for Project Titan has been pushed back to 2021 because of challenges the engineering group has run into, reports The Information.
Rumors of problems with the electric car project began to surface earlier this year. The mastermind behind Project Titan, Steve Zadesky, left the company in January. He was recently replaced by former Telsa VP of Vehicle Engineering, Chris Porritt.
Apple’s biggest challenge so far is said to be processing and collecting data from the car’s self-driving car sensors — something a software company should be great at solving. The sensor produce up to two gigabytes of data per mile, which Apple stores on its own servers. The solve the problem Apple has brought in some of the key employees from its Siri team.
Nearly 1,000 Apple employees have been assigned to work on the self-driving electric car project. The company reportedly put a hiring freeze on the project this spring when Jony Ive expressed his displeasure.
Apple currently has secret R&D car facilities in Sunnyvale, California and Berlin, Germany to try to accelerate the effort.
