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Apple is working on a self-driving car program for a while now. New developments show that the program may take 5-7 years to deliver a functional vehicle.

People close to the project provided this new insight and noted that the car is very far away from the production stage. Last year we reported that Apple’s goal was to produce an electric car by 2024. New insights say it will take until at least 2027.

Even with this, it is possible that the timeline is not static and could change again. Most of the people working on Apple’s vehicle, are doing it from home due to the pandemic, which is slowing down the progress.

Starts and stops

After Bloomberg reported this, CNBC also published their report, which seemed to confirm this change. Hyundai Motor said that it is in early-stage talks to work with the tech giant to manufacturer the self-driving car.

Back in 2016, it was reported that the car project was scrapped since many people working on it were switched to different tasks that involved perfecting the technology that makes self-driving vehicles work.

Apple laid off 190 people working on the self-driving car project in February 2019. The company has been working on building self-driving technology, with unsatisfactory results.

A slow climb

In February 2019, Apple was ranked the least safe out of 48 companies that were testing self-driving technology in California. For almost every mile driven, Apple’s vehicle required human intervention to stay on course.

Apple pulled up its socks after acquiring Drive.ai in June 2019. The startup works in developing self-driving technology.

At the time, it was working on a platform that relies on deep learning and AI, to create affordable autonomous vehicle software. The Apple Car will most likely use whatever technology Drive.ai comes up with.