Apple is aiming to launch a self-driving passenger car that could include its own battery technology by 2024, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Apple is not the only BigTech company dabbling in autonomous vehicle technology; only last week Amazon publicly unveiled its autonomous ride-hailing robotaxi ‘Zoox.’

Project Titan, the iPhone maker’s initial step into the automotive space, first saw the company design its own vehicle from scratch in 2014.

According to Reuters, at one point Apple drew back the effort to focus on software and reassessed its goals.

Doug Field, an old-timer at Apple who had also worked at Tesla, returned to the tech business to oversee the automotive project in 2018, laying off 190 people from the team in 2019.

Apple's project has now progressed enough for the business to develop a vehicle for consumers, according to a number of people familiar with the project that spoke to Reuters.

The plans have not yet been made public by Apple.

A Reuters source that has seen Apple’s battery design said that the technology is central to the company’s automotive strategy and could “radically” reduce the cost of batteries while increasing the vehicle’s range.

According to one of the people familiar with the project, Apple plans to use a unique “monocell” battery 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.”

Although building an autonomous vehicle will be a significant challenge for the business, a person who worked on Project Titan told Reuters: “If there is one company on the planet that has the resources to do that, it’s probably Apple. But at the same time, it’s not a cell phone.”

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