A new rumour is creating waves in the technology world, that raises a big question: Is Apple about to design its own self drive car?
Apple is aiming not only to change the industry in the tech and cell phones domain but also in the automobile one. The company’s ambitions when it comes to cars is far beyond dominating dashboards with GPS and multimedia, as it is rumoured that the technology mogul is preparing a self driving electric car under the code name Titan.
The car project is supposed to be rivaling not only the auto industry but also Google, who apparently is also working on developing self driving automobiles. Last week there have been reports hinting that Apple has been circling around automakers looking for engineers and R&D specialists, for what was rumored at the time, as an advanced interpretation of CarPlay.
The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook seems to have given the green light to the project Titan about a year ago and Steve Zadesky the vice president of the company would be in charge of the plan. Cook reportedly gathered a team of 1,000 people lead by Zadesky who before joining Apple in 1999, worked at Ford, and has serious knowledge of mechanical design as was involved in the creation of the iPod and iPhone.
He was given freedom to choose his team from people in the firm and as well from outside of Apple. Many persons from the industrial design team are believed to be former designers who have previously worked for European car makers.
One of the persons Apple reportedly has added to its team is the former president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz on Research and Development, Johann Jungwirth. Also, is has been speculated that Apple has met with several contract manufacturers for luxury vehicles like Austrian Magna Steyr.
However, while Apple seems to be hunting for experts from the veterans of the car industry, the company has nothing against working along side with them. Apple is not looking for much help from the automobile makers which could suggest that they have ruled out the big names of the car industry and have gone directly to their own suppliers.
Rumours have stated that previous attempts by Google to reach the car manufacturers have been refused as the company’s demands made the producers hesitant and it appears that Google has also independently approached the suppliers regarding the development of their self driving car.
It is assumed that Apple’s Titan project will be developed at a location close to their current base in Cupertino. According to sources, there are being conducted studies on metals, robotics and other type of materials that could be used for automobile manufacturing.
Their main area of interest is the creation of vehicles that could offer the possibility of driving by themselves, as fully automated cars would be a technological evolution. The existing car manufacturers are easing into the development of autonomous cars by releasing first releasing partially self driving cars. On the other hand, Apple reportedly has a great interest in all the technological means possible that would allow a car to evolve to the point of autonomous driving.
So far, Apple hasn’t given any comments regarding the self driving car rumours and haven’t responded to requests asking for more information on the matter.
Actually, Apple has many ways of expanding its automobile field without having to actually produce an actual car. There is no doubt that the key in designing an autonomous car and making it function is software. For example, Ford is about to develop a system that is capable of recognising road signs and markings, Apple’s purpose could be of offering a solution that could be licensed by other companies.
The physical design of the Apple car, is supposedly of a car looking like a minivan, possibly looking like the same vehicle that was seen in the wild earlier this year, designed with a lot of cameras. At the time of appearance, there had been several opinions divided into whether that was an actual self driving prototype of was just taking panoramic street level pictures to be used in Apple Maps.
Electric cars are very attractive when referring to the fuel prices and the well being of the environment.
Even though the rumours have brought a lot of excitement, we are not going to see an Apple branded car this year or the year to come. If speculations are correct, the Apple Titan project has started for about a year, meaning that the plan is still in its incipient stages, assuming that we are really talking about a car and not another embedded system for vehicles.
An Apple car won’t be seen on the roads for the coming years so if anyone was thinking to wait for an iCar instead of buying an Opel, should think again.
It is yet not sure if Apple is indeed working on a car prototype and if the project will make it on the market. There have been past rumoured Apple projects like the iTV which has never been released.
The idea of the existence of an Apple self driving car sounds insane but if this is the next big step in the evolution of technology Apple should definitely be involved.
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