After almost a decade of improvement, Apple’s $10 billion “Apple Automotive” undertaking was lately canceled by the Cupertino firm. The termination of the electrical car undertaking has left observers with a number of unanswered questions, comparable to what customized expertise was developed for the undertaking and what the corporate will do with the tech now that it isn’t wanted for an Apple Automotive.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman lately held a Q&A along with his readers concerning the canceled car undertaking, the place he shared just a few tidbits concerning the expertise Apple created from scratch for the undertaking — together with essentially the most highly effective system on a chip ever developed by the Apple silicon staff.
Gurman was requested about how concerned within the Apple Automotive undertaking the Apple silicon staff was, Gurman replied:
Maybe reluctantly, the Apple Silicon staff was closely concerned within the Apple automobile undertaking. Bear in mind, a very powerful a part of the automobile was its AI mind. That each one ran on Apple silicon. The chip Apple developed was almost completed. It was equal to about 4 M2 Ultras mixed.
That will be fairly a strong chip! The M2 Extremely, which is 2 M2 Max chips joined, boasts 134 billion transistors. That’s already the second-highest transistor depend in a shopper microprocessor, solely lately surpassed by AMD’s 146-billion-transistor Intuition MI300A. Nevertheless, the SoC Apple developed to be used in its car would have blown previous that with roughly 536 billion transistors, making it the most important chip ever created by any shopper expertise firm.
Gurman didn’t present any extra particulars concerning the new chip, saying solely that the quad-M2 Extremely SoC’s improvement was almost full when the wheels fell off of the car undertaking.
Apple tends to develop chips that can be utilized throughout a number of gadget lineups, so we may see a quad M2 Extremely powering an Apple gadget someday within the close to future. Because the undertaking’s engineers have been reassigned to different Apple tasks, the highly effective SoC may make an look.
One reader requested Gurman if Apple would promote or license the expertise it developed for its car undertaking. Gurman replied that he doesn’t consider Apple would provide any of the expertise to different corporations; quite, it’s extra prone to hold the tech to be used in its future merchandise of its personal. He stated that might embody synthetic intelligence, superior silicon, and the “safetyOS” microkernel working system that was developed for the car undertaking.
Even so, Apple may promote just a few extra materials property associated to the Apple Automotive undertaking, comparable to its Arizona check monitor or its powertrain expertise.
One other reader requested, “Do you see large modifications in Apple CarPlay transferring ahead the place perhaps they have been holding again a few of the options to launch on an Apple Automotive?”
Gurman replied that Apple is “all-in” on the subsequent technology of CarPlay, which they’ve already unveiled, and he doesn’t count on to see something extra seem on the roadmap this time round.
Was the timing behind the cancellation of the Apple Automotive undertaking merely a case of Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner eager to “tie up free ends” earlier than he steps down?
Gurman replied that he didn’t consider that was the case. When Apple was rumored to be delaying the car’s debut till 2028, some speculated that the delay was tied to Cook dinner’s anticipated retirement date. Nevertheless, Gurman stated he doesn’t count on to see Cook dinner stepping down anytime quickly.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]