Apple wants to build its first car in 2024

Apple is moving forward with self-driving car technology and targets 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle that could include its battery technology, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, Report states.

The iPhone maker’s automotive efforts, known as Project Titan, had proceeded unevenly since 2014 when it first started to design its vehicle from scratch. At one point, Apple scaled back the effort 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. The company’s goal of building a personal vehicle for the mass market contrasts with Alphabet’s Waymo, which has built robot-taxis to carry passengers 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.