Apple’s Auto Moonshot; SoftBank’s SPAC: The Information’s Tech Briefing

Last week, we wrote that as Apple gets closer to nailing down a prototype electric self-driving car, leaks about the vehicle would be inevitable next year. Turns out we were a few days off.

Reuters on Monday provided the most detailed update about Apple’s Project Titan in quite a while, though there’s still a lot unknown, including whether the forthcoming passenger car will be sold directly to individuals or run as a driverless taxi service. The target date for Apple’s car production is 2024, the report said, and Apple will play a key role in developing the car’s battery tech. That’s unsurprising given that much of the project is helmed by Doug Field.

Field in 2018 returned to Apple from Tesla, where he had been overseeing vehicle engineering and manufacturing, after CEO Elon Musk pushed Field aside as Tesla struggled to accelerate production of its Model 3 sedan. Tesla has led the way in using lithium ion battery modules to power a car. Presumably Field hopes to repeat that success at Apple.

Building electric cars is becoming easier and cheaper as the industry matures, but the self-driving car piece of the equation is far from solved. Unless Apple’s engineering leaders, including Jaime Waydo, make big progress, we’re likely to get an Apple-branded electric car with the partially automated driving features of a Tesla rather than a fully-self-driving car with no steering wheel. —Amir Efrati