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Apple is now aiming to continue its plans in building technologies beyond consumer electronics. According to Reuters, the tech giant is now moving forward with self-driving car technology and is targeting to produce a passenger vehicle by 2024, which will include its own breakthrough battery technology.

This is not the first time Apple has expressed interest in making its own cars, as there were previous reports since 2015 about such news. At the time, Apple was focused on developing self-driving software it could deploy in partnership with existing carmakers, instead of building its own cars.

However, Apple has progressed enough that it now aims to build a vehicle for consumers in the near future, as told by anonymous sources to Reuters, who asked not to be named because Apple’s plans have not yet been made public.

The difference this time is that Apple now has a core strategy through its ‘next-level’ battery technology, which could “radically” reduce the cost of batteries and increase the vehicle’s range. The said battery, according to the same sources, features a unique “monocell” design that bulks up the individual cells in the battery and frees up space inside the battery pack by eliminating pouches and modules that hold battery materials.

Apple is also reportedly examining a chemistry for the battery called LFP, or lithium iron phosphate, which is inherently less likely to overheat and is thus safer than other types of lithium-ion batteries. Additionally, the self-driving cars might feature multiple LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensors for scanning different distances, also present in Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro and iPad Pro models released this year.

The project, called Project Titan, has since been a hot topic among people in the industry, as it competes against the well-known electric self-driving car manufacturer Tesla. It still remains unclear, however, if Apple will really push through with building its own cars. There are speculations that the company will just rely on a manufacturing partner to build vehicles or develop the software to be integrated with a car made by a traditional automaker.

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