Apple plans to release its first car in 2019

Apple plans to release its first car in 2019, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. It’s the focus of a major initiative dubbed “Project Titan.”

This has been a topic of discussion for quite some time, and now it’s getting very real. The company is now referring to Titan as a “committed project” internally, and plans to triple the number of people working on it—jumping from 600 to 1,800 employees.

Rumors thus far have suggested that Apple is working on a self-driving car, but the company’s first vehicle is unlikely to be fully autonomous, the WSJ says, citing people familiar with the company’s plans.

The first reports about an Apple car surfaced in February of this year, noting that the company was working on an Apple-branded electric vehicle that resembles a minivan. Since then, the company has made a number of notable hires, including Fiat Chrystler’s Doug Betts and autonomous vehicle researcher Paul Furgale.


Piper Jaffray equity analyst Gene Munster recently estimated Apple’s chances of producing a car at between 50 percent and 60 percent, noting that any car made by Apple would have three distinctive features: a unique design, interoperability with other Apple devices, and at least some autonomous capability.

Last week, Stephen Colbert asked Tim Cook about the company’s rumored driverless car. Cook replied vaguely: “We look at a number of things along the way, and we decide to really put our energies in a few of them.”

While Apple is reportedly shooting for a 2019 launch, the WSJ’s sources are skeptical that the company will be able to meet that deadline. Building a car is an ambitious endeavor for any company—especially one with no experience in the automotive industry. With that said, it’s possible that Apple’s 2019 target date isn’t when the car will be available for purchase, but when engineers sign off on the product’s main features.

Apple declined to comment on this story.