After ten years of car manufacturing, Apple has repeatedly lowered its goals: the electric car will not be available until at least 2028, and the autonomous driving function will be "downgraded."

Apple's mysterious car project, Titan, has been in the works for a decade, but little has been heard about it. Recent reports indicate that Apple is still unable to officially launch a complete car and has once again lowered its expectations for the project.

According to sources, Apple is now developing an electric vehicle with limited autonomous driving capabilities, instead of the fully autonomous vehicle it initially envisioned. Despite this, Apple has also delayed its target release date, with the earliest possible launch now set for 2028.

If these reports are true, it means that Apple has once again pushed back the expected release date for its car by two years.

Apple's foray into the automotive industry can be traced back to 2014 when CEO Tim Cook approved the Titan project. Apple then used its financial resources to poach talent from companies like Alphabet-C, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla, forming a core team with a combination of Silicon Valley and automotive industry expertise.

By the end of 2019, Apple had hired over 300 employees from Tesla. However, due to Apple's wavering direction and lack of concrete partnerships, many executives involved in the Titan project left, causing significant setbacks.

In March 2022, there was more bad news for Apple's car project. Ming-Chi Kuo, a renowned analyst known for accurate Apple product predictions, stated that the Apple Car team had been disbanded for some time. He also mentioned that if Apple wanted to start mass production of the Apple Car by 2025, they would need to reorganize the team within 3 to 6 months.

By December 2022, the Titan project underwent a major shift. Reports emerged that Apple was pushing back the target release date for its electric vehicle by about a year, to 2026. This was because Apple's executives faced the reality that it was not feasible to create a fully autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel and pedals in the current technological environment.

At that time, it was reported that Apple had lowered its expectations for autonomous driving capabilities, opting to include a steering wheel and pedals in the car and only supporting fully autonomous driving on highways. This meant that the planned Level 5 autonomous driving system was downgraded to Level 4.

In September 2023, Ming-Chi Kuo once again expressed pessimism, stating that the Apple car project had gone silent and that the best solution for Apple to enter the car market and achieve mass production within the next few years would be through acquiring an existing car manufacturer.

In November 2023, reports indicated that Apple still had a long way to go with its car project and that it may not be launched until before 2030. This Tuesday, the media learned that Apple is developing a more basic driving assistance feature that is comparable to Tesla's current autonomous driving capabilities. It will adopt a Level 2 system, which is a further downgrade from the previous Level 4.

According to insiders, the transition to the above-mentioned level of autonomous driving is seen as a crucial moment for Apple's car project internally: either Apple will eventually release a product with lowered expectations, or Apple's executives may seriously reconsider whether the Titan project should still exist. However, Apple may still change direction and adopt a new strategy.