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Nevertheless, that’s a far cry from Apple’s original goal to produce a Level 5 autonomous vehicle. Level 5 was the dream, representing the highest level of driverless automation and the point at which a car no longer needs a steering wheel because no human interaction is required. In late 2022, Apple had reportedly decided to settle for achieving a Level 4 vehicle by 2026 but scrapped those plans after “top executives” and Apple’s Board of Directors threatened to cancel the project entirely if it didn’t begin producing results. "Internally, the shift is seen as a pivotal moment for Apple’s car: Either the company is finally able to deliver this product with reduced expectations or top executives may seriously reconsider the project’s existence, the people said. Still, it’s possible that Apple reverses course again and takes a new tack." — Mark Gurman That’s not particularly surprising, considering the billions of dollars Apple has invested in the project over the past decade. Salaries alone have run into hundreds of millions of dollars per year, not to mention the research and development of self-driving computers and other AI systems, road testing, and engineering of the parts and chips. Yet with all this effort, the team has never produced a formal prototype, and even if it does, some executives aren’t convinced there’s enough profit to be made in the undertaking. According to Gurman, this latest strategy is the result of “a series of frenzied meetings” between Apple’s board, CEO Tim Cook, and Kevin Lynch, the Apple Watch exec and former Adobe Chief Technology Officer who was reassigned to head Project Titan in 2021. The one piece of good news is that all my hope is not lost. In addition to the possibility that Apple may yet pull a rabbit out of its hat, Gurman also says that Apple is planning to design the Apple Car in such a way that it can “release an upgraded system later that supports Level 4 autonomy,” effectively offering the new capabilities in a “carOS” update.