Apple has accomplished “much of the core work” on a brand new processor meant to energy its secretive autonomous electrical automobile mission referred to as Titan, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports. The milestone comes as Apple is reportedly now accelerating its timeline for the autonomous automobile it’s creating, with a brand new goal of launching it in simply 4 years.

Apple’s personal silicon group designed the chip, which Gurman says is the “most advanced component” that’s been developed for the mission to date. The firm is outwardly on the brink of put the chip by way of its real-world paces in its fleet of take a look at autos in California and hopes to make a automobile with “stronger safeguards than what’s available from Tesla and Waymo,” in response to the report.

The aim now for Project Titan, after a number of pivots, is to create an autonomous automobile that doesn’t have a steering wheel. The inside can be spacious and look extra just like the limousine-style seating association that EV startup Canoo has promoted in its electrical van prototypes. Apple was at one level in talks to amass Canoo, as The Verge reported earlier this yr, and lately employed one of many startup’s co-founders. There can be a big, iPad-style touchscreen show that may run a person interface much like iOS.

The enterprise mannequin is reportedly nonetheless undecided, although. Apple has thought of making an attempt to create a self-driving fleet to compete with Uber, Lyft, and Waymo (one thing Tesla has proposed however continues to be very removed from executing), however Gurman experiences that the “more likely scenario” is that Apple will promote the automobiles to people.

On the electrical automobile facet of issues, Apple is reportedly not seeking to develop a proprietary charging cable for the automobile. Instead, it desires to make the automobile appropriate with the “combined charging system,” or CCS normal, which might make it doable to cost the automobile at most public quick charging stations.

Of course, all of this comes after years of reported adjustments to the mission, which was began in 2014. Five totally different executives have run Project Titan after Apple Watch lead Kevin Lynch took over earlier this yr. The refocusing and timeline shift reported by Bloomberg could possibly be an indication that there’s actual progress being made with him on the helm, or it might simply turn out to be the most recent footnote in regardless of the mission turns into subsequent.