Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the situation, that Apple Inc. has scaled back ambitious self-driving plans for its future electric vehicle and postponed the car’s target launch date to 2026.
Following the news, shares of the company that makes iPhones dropped 2.4%.
Since 2014, when it first began to design a vehicle from scratch, the company’s automotive efforts, known as Project Titan, have progressed unevenly.
People who spoke with Bloomberg said that Apple is now planning a less ambitious design that will only support full autonomous capabilities on highways and have a steering wheel and pedals.
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The report went on to say that the company wants to make a car that lets drivers do other things on the freeway while being alerted in time to switch to manual control.
According to a Bloomberg report from the previous year, Apple was refocusing the project on fully autonomous driving capabilities and pushing for the launch of its electric car as early as 2025.
The report then stated that Apple’s ideal automobile would have no pedals or steering wheel and interiors designed for hands-free driving.
Reuters inquired for information, but the company did not immediately respond.
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