After shedding beans that he was in talks with Apple about his powerful Apple Car rumors, Hyundai and its affiliate Kia said they are not in talks with Apple.
“Our company is not continuing talks with Apple on the development of self-driving vehicles,” Nikkei Asia Hyundai and Kia said Monday in separate files. “Our company is receiving requests from several companies to jointly develop autonomous EV cars, but nothing has been decided yet, as they are in the early stages.”
Conformable Bloomberg, Hyundai’s latest statement is similar to the one issued a month ago, after he let it slip in the media that he was in talks with Apple. Some hours later, Hyundai withdrew angrily to say it was in talks with many potential partners. Both Hyundai and Kia shares fell 6.21% and 15% respectively, in Seoul following today’s news.
This is not exactly a surprising end to the back and forth between Hyundai and Apple in the last month. Although we can’t know for sure, Apple is a well-known company obsessed with secrecy, and Hyundai’s blunders could not have satisfied Apple executives with tight lips. In late January, it was also reported that Hyundai executives were beginning to have a second doubt about the potential partnership, citing concern that it would leave Apple with all the glory while Hyundai worked on making the car. At the same time, there have been reports that the Apple Car chassis will be based on Hyundai’s E-GMP platform. Just last week, CNBC reported that Hyundai was very close to concluding an agreement with Apple, with the Kia factory in Georgia going to manufacture the Apple car. But everything was before Last Friday, news was broadcast that Apple allegedly alleged take a break from talking with Hyundai and Kia.
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Apple may enjoy all the rumors flying left and right about the Apple Car and wait until it speaks – and media interest – goes out. After all, the fact that Apple has been interested in car technology is Silicon The valley is the worst preserved secret. Leaks, rumors and speculation have regularly appeared in the tech media since the project was quietly launched in 2015.
Of course, just because it didn’t work with Hyundai doesn’t mean this is the last thing we hear about the Apple Car. Nikkei reported last week that Apple had talks with at least six Japanese carmakers. And, if the last month is a clue, we are in decades of rumors about the Apple Car until the work is finally released. How long will this take? Well, while some have said that Apple is planning to launch in 2024, reliable Apple forecasters have warned that the timeline is a bit ambitious. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the earliest we would see with an Apple car is 2025, with a release in 2028 or later much more likely. Meanwhile, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg quote Anonymous Apple sources say the project will take at least five to seven years. So buckle people, it will be a long walk.