This article has been corrected.
Apple has set a ship date for its secretive electric car project: 2019.
To meet its ambitious deadline, the company plans to triple the size of its electric car team to 1,800 people, according to the Wall Street Journal. But it’s unlikely consumers will be driving Apple-branded cars in 2019. The ship date more likely refers to an internal deadline when the engineers OK the main features of the car, codenamed Project Titan.
Despite Apple’s interest in driverless cars, it appears the first-generation vehicle will not be fully self-driving, reports WSJ. That’s a capability the company intends to add further down the line. The Guardian recently reported that Apple has met with officials from California’s Department of Motor Vehicles to discuss autonomous cars as well as representatives from GoMentum Station, a high-security Bay Area test site for driverless cars.
An Apple representative declined to comment.
Correction (Sept. 21): An earlier version of this article said Apple’s electric car team would triple to 600 people; the team currently has that many members.