Apple Inc. is preparing the electric car code-named Titan to be shipped in 2019. In fact, the company had already hired 1800 experts to its development team.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Project Titan had been tripled its team to 1800 members by now. Apple is pushing the project as it targets 2019 for the shipment of the electric car. The report said the company has no plans to make the car fully autonomous on its initial launch, though the driverless car is still part of the plan.
The company clears out that the shipment date doesn't mean the exact date the electric car would be available for sale. It said it could imply the date engineers signed on its main features, although Apple gave no further details about it.
Correspondingly, the iPhone maker has been hiring experts in the field, including Megan McClain, an AG engineer who's skilled in automated driving. Graduate researcher Vinay Palakkode from Carnegie Mellon University has been recruited as well, the Times of India reported.
Specified by the Apple Insider, the company even bought a 43-acre of land in San Jose, California last month, which gives an impression of a major R&D operation including the self-driving car.
A reliable source also said that Apple is urging Tesla to push the project to the point that Tesla's own production development has been affected.
The news coincides with Apple's legal team who has been spotted around the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to talk about the laws involving autonomous vehicles.
A shell company called SixtyEight Research has been rumored to wrap the Project Titan. The development of the Project Titan is allegedly located at a facility in Sunnyvale, California, known to be named as "SG5".
With Apple's dedication to Project Titan's R&D, alongside its hardware and software collaboration, there's a possibility that they could top the automated car industry in the future.
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