Apple’s ambitious project ‘Titan’, a decade-long, multi-billion-dollar initiative to develop an autonomous vehicle, was recently cancelled. However, the company’s plans included the creation of a hi-tech chip capable of autonomous driving, its power equivalent to four of Apple’s most potent M2 Ultra processors.
According to Bloomberg’s correspondent, Mark Gurman, Apple was in the development stage of a specific automotive AI chip, its performance equivalent to four M2 Ultra chips, the most powerful solution currently offered by Apple. An M2 Ultra comprises 134 billion transistors, 24 CPU cores, 76 GPU cores, and 32 Neural Engine cores. The M2 Ultra processor is exclusively used in Apple’s desktop computers, specifically in the high-performance versions of Mac Studio and Mac Pro.
Gurman asserts that the development of the new chip was “nearly finished” before Apple’s automotive project was cancelled. Following the termination of project ‘Titan’, the developers have been moved to other divisions, suggesting that their groundwork could be utilized in other Apple projects.
In development since 2014, several prototypes of the Apple car were created. The company had reached out to Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Volkswagen, McLaren, and Tesla for potential collaborations. The original intention was to roll out a fully autonomous vehicle, but the billion-dollar ‘Titan’ project was ultimately shelved last month.
