Apple’s ‘Project Titan’ was a venture, by the tech giant into the realm of self-driving car technology involving an investment of around $10 billion. However, after ten years filled with decisions numerous setbacks, and frequent changes in leadership, the project was eventually abandoned.
Alongside the substantial financial costs incurred the hard work put in by teams including the Apple Silicon team ended up going to waste. These teams were on the verge of finalizing a tailored chipset that could rival four M2 Ultra SoCs, Apple’s in-house silicon chips so far.
More About Apple’s ‘Project Titan’
The main objective of the Apple car initiative was to incorporate a driving system into the vehicle, which required a powerful custom chipset. While Apple’s Mac Pro and Mac Studio used the M2 Ultra chipsets for their processing power a car demanded horsepower. As reported by Bloomberg Mark Gurman, the Apple Silicon team devoted effort to this project by crafting a chipset equivalent, to four M2 Ultra SoCs.
To give an idea of scale one M2 Ultra chip features 134 billion transistors and includes a 24-core CPU, a 76-core GPU, and a 32-core Neural Engine. The new chip might have included 536 billion transistors, a 96-core CPU, and a 304-core GPU by utilizing the ‘UltraFusion’ method previously employed to merge chipsets. However, this is purely speculative showcasing Apple’s goals for ‘Project Titan.’
Regrettably, progress was stopped due to issues and the perceived challenge of competing against Tesla in the industry. Even though it was nearing completion the project was ultimately scrapped, casting doubt on the future of the chip. Yet, there remains the possibility that the resources and engineering knowledge accumulated during the project’s development phase may be repurposed by the Apple Silicon team. As the anticipated release of the M3 Ultra approaches in mid-2024, it remains to be seen if any similarities exist between this chip and the one that rivaled four M2 Ultra SoCs.
FAQs
What was the objective of Apple’s ‘Project Titan’?
‘Project Titan’ aimed to develop an advanced autonomous driving system integrated into a self-driving car.
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Why was the development of the custom chip for ‘Project Titan’ halted?
The project was canceled due to financial viability concerns, and Apple’s inability to compete with Tesla in the market.
