Not Yet Ready to Launch, Apple Delays the Launch of Autonomous Vehicles Without Pedals and Steering Wheel Until 2026

Apple's prototype autonomous vehicle that may be launched soon. (photo: twitter @pip_stock3)

JAKARTA - Apple Inc has scaled back its ambitious self-driving feature plans for their future electric vehicles and pushed back the car's target launch date to 2026. A report about this appeared in Bloomberg News on Tuesday, December 6. The report immediately made the iPhone maker's shares fall 2.4%.

Apple's efforts to produce an autonomous vehicle known as Project Titan have been uneventful since 2014, when it first designed this model from scratch.

“Apple is now planning a less ambitious design that will include a steering wheel and pedals and support only full-on-road autonomy,” a source told Bloomberg.

The report adds that the company plans to develop vehicles that will allow drivers to perform other tasks on the freeway and are alerted with sufficient time to switch to manual controls, if needed.

Last year, a Bloomberg report said Apple had been trying to launch its electric car as early as 2025 and was refocusing the project on full self-driving capabilities.

The report states that Apple's self-driving car will not have a steering wheel and pedals, with an interior designed for hands-free driving. Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the report.