It is rumored that Apple is working on a self-driving car, internally called “Project Titan”. It seems that Apple started working on the project in 2014 and, years later, the rumor mill is in full swing, speculating when Apple will launch its automatic driving technology. Speculation has become so widespread that potential competitors of an Apple car are already weighing their potential threats to the automotive industry as a whole.
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As reported by Reuters Today, Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess said he was “not afraid” of an “Apple car” and that Apple would not be able to surpass the $ 2 trillion car industry overnight. Typically, Apple has not confirmed that it is working on a self-driving car, but Diess considers the rumors and reports to be “logical”. Apple has expertise in battery technology, software and design and can easily use all its expertise in these areas to create a car, said the CEO.
Similar remarks can be traced back to 2006, a year before the launch of the iPhone, when the CEO of Palm, who was one of the world’s largest smartphone makers at the time, said Apple would not “just figure it out ”, referring to smartphones. In the years that followed, however, the “iPhone” would have captivated the market, eventually leading to $ 65 billion in revenue for a single quarter.
Volkswagen, based in Germany, is one of the largest car manufacturers in Europe and around the world, giving it a significant dominant position over the industry. Diess said he was not worried that Apple’s market access would disrupt Volkswagen’s dominance, saying that despite Apple’s expertise in all the technology needed to create a car, his company still did not “fear” and that Apple would not managed ”to disrupt the market overnight.
Until this year, very little was known about how Apple would build a car itself. Apple uses third-party vendors, such as TSMC and Foxconn, to build current products such as iPhone and Mac, but none of its current vendors are fully positioned to build a car. On this front, Apple is expected to partner with an already known and well-known car manufacturer to fulfill its ambitions to drive cars.
In early January, reports began that Apple was about to enter into an agreement with Hyundai, after the car manufacturer released a statement confirming that it was in talks with the technology giant. The statement was quickly revoked and reworded to exclude claims about Apple, and since then it has been reported that talks between Hyundai and Apple have stopped.
Several sources have suggested different deadlines for the launch of “Apple Car”, the oldest report suggesting a launch as early as 2024. Bloomberghowever, he believes that the car is not “close to the production stage” and that a launch is at least five to seven years away.