Apple reportedly began developing the Apple Car roughly eight years ago. Since the inception of the project, Apple’s struggles have been imminent when it has come to developing a self-driving EV, ranging from technical difficulties to leadership changes. The project has seen its fair share of trouble along the eight-year journey.

According to a detailed report by Wayne Ma, a journalist from The Information, the brand has now reportedly released information regarding the design of the car. The latest design features four seats facing each other for easier interpersonal communication amongst the riders of the EV.  Also, the roof of the car has a curved design, resembling the roof of a Volkswagen Beetle.

Apple’s designers are reportedly experimenting with a trunk that automatically raises for simple access and lowers when not in use. The designers are also claimed to have talked about creating enormous screens for the seatbacks that can be adjusted up and down. Jony Ive, a former Apple design leader, is still working on the project as a consultant. According to reports, he told the Apple Car team that they “should lean toward the weirdness of the vehicle’s design and not try to hide its sensors” after he left Apple in 2019 to start the independent design business LoveFrom.

Wayne Ma also revealed that Apple hopes to get a waiver from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration so that it can introduce cars without steering and brake pedals. The Apple automobile team is rumored to have created a number of demo videos for self-driving technology to show Tim Cook and other executives. The team also gave Cook a test drive in a self-driving vehicle in the Santa Clara Valley, which “autonomously conducted a DMV self-driving road test to demonstrate its capabilities.”

It’s interesting to note that the story asserts Apple has even considered introducing a feature that would allow passengers to sleep while the car drives itself.

Apple is currently trying to figure out ways to hide the latest Apple Car prototype while it is being tested in public as the product steadily approaches its launch. However, the vehicle’s release won’t probably happen for several years.

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The world’s biggest battery maker CATL has announced that it will start producing a new electric-car battery with 620+miles (1000+ kilometers). The EV battery will enter production in 2023 and has been officially named -The Qilin battery. 

The Qilin is deemed 50% more efficient than the battery that is currently used in the Tesla Model S. Against the 620+ miles range of The Qilin, Tesla’s longest-range electric car Tesla Model S only offers a range of 405 miles. In the United States, the longest-range electric car available is the 169,000$ Lucid Air. Lucid Air is a California-based startup and offers an EV that can travel 520 miles per charge.

The Qilin packs a lot of energy into a small space, according to CATL, the largest EV battery producer in the world and a Tesla supplier. This is possible because of breakthroughs in battery chemistry and packaging. According to CATL, the battery has a 255 watt-hour energy density per kilogram and it will be 13% more powerful than the configuration Tesla recently began utilizing for its Model Y SUVs, which is 4680 batteries.

If a vehicle is equipped with adequate batteries, it can go great distances. And making sure that batteries don’t take up too much room or weigh too much is the difficult part.

Additionally, CATL also claimed that The Qilin can charge from 10% to 80% in 10 minutes, making it leagues apart from anything that the market has to offer. However, the real statistics will only be determined when the battery is rolled out in the market and the EVs using The Qilin are on the road.

There has been no official word as to which US electric carmakers will be interested in implementing The Qilin into the cars. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that two Chinese manufacturers of electric cars, Hozon and Li Auto, have so far committed to using the Qilin pack in upcoming models.

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On Tuesday night, in the United States of America, several autonomous Cruise robotaxis disrupted traffic in San Francisco, California after they abruptly stopped operating.

The incident’s specifics were discussed on Reddit (and picked up by TechCrunch) and serve as an example of how driverless cars are still in the early stages of development in practical applications.

Although Cruise, a company supported by GM and Honda, has been testing its technology in San Francisco since February, it didn’t begin offering a paid robotaxi service until last week. The vehicles operate with some limitations, but have no human safety driver at all. When the weather is good, they only provide rides on ‘certain streets’ between the hours of 10 PM and 6 AM, and they are only permitted to go at a speed of 30 mph.

At least five vehicles are seen halted on the street in photos of the driverless roadblock. According to the Redditor who posted the images, the incident happened about midnight.

In response to TechCrunch, a representative for Cruise acknowledged the incident but made no mention of why it occurred or whether it would happen again in the future.

The spokesman explained, “We encountered a problem earlier this week that caused several of our trucks to cluster. While it was resolved and no passengers were impacted, we apologize to anyone who was inconvenienced.”

This incident involving Cruise’s driverless technology is not the first. A police officer attempted to stop a Cruise robotaxi earlier this year, ostensibly because the vehicle’s headlights were out at night. Later, Cruise claimed “human error” was to blame for the tragedy. 

Redditor seansinha who shared the pictures said, “The first thing I tell my coworker is that they’re planning to kill us. It was a very bizarre occurrence. The cars had to be removed by hand by arriving humans. For so long obstructing the street, Cruise ought to be fined to shit. They even made it, so the street sweeper couldn’t hit an entire block.”

He also mentioned that the Cruise employees showed up to the incident “in twenty minutes” but were unsuccessful in actually moving the cars in good time.

Recently, China’s Pony.ai also announced its plans to begin commercial driverless robotaxi service in San Fransisco. It remains to be seen if this incident will impact its launch. 

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• China’s Pony.ai plans to begin commercial driverless robotaxi service in California in 2022
• https://www.gizmochina.com/2021/07/06/autox-gen5-fully-driverless-system-robo-taxis/
• https://www.gizmochina.com/2022/04/29/baidu-pony-ai-china-first-commercial-driverless-robotaxi-permits/

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