Apple’s self-driving electric car is at least half a decade away

A self-driving GM Cruise car on the streets of San Francisco. An Apple car would rival electric vehicles from Tesla and offerings from companies such as upstart Lucid Motors and established manufacturers like Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz and General Motors Co’s Chevrolet. — Cruise/TNS

Apple Inc will take at least half a decade to launch an autonomous, electric vehicle because development work is still at an early stage, according to people with knowledge of the efforts.

The Cupertino, California-based technology giant has a small team of hardware engineers developing drive systems, vehicle interior and external car body designs with the goal of eventually shipping a vehicle. That’s a more ambitious goal than in previous years when the project mostly focused on creating an underlying self-driving system. The company has also added more ex-Tesla Inc executives to the project.