Tim Cook announces iPhone 11.
Source: Apple
Apple CEO Tim Cook alluded to the company’s activity in autonomous vehicles, following recent reports that the company is in renewed talks to develop its own car.
“Autonomy itself is a basic technology, in my opinion. If you take a step back, the car, in many ways, is a robot. An autonomous car is a robot. And so there are a lot of things you can do and And we’ll see what Apple does, “Cook said in an interview with Kara Swisher on Monday on the” Sway “podcast.
“We investigate so many things internally. Many of them never see the light of day. I’m not saying it won’t be done,” Cook added.
When asked if Apple works on a car or on the technology inside a car, Cook declined to comment.
“We like to integrate hardware, software and services and find their intersections, because we think that’s where the magic happens. And that’s what we like to do. And we like to have the primary technology that’s around us. “, he said.
Apple has long been expected to enter the automotive business with its own vehicle or sell its technology to other carmakers and has made a series of moves to indicate that it intends to do so. Helping to consolidate its engineering ranks, the company acquired the Drive.ai start-up in 2019.
An autonomous vehicle could pit the company against Tesla, which is launching its own automatic driving features. In 2018, Apple hired Doug Field, then senior vice president of Tesla engineering, to work probably on self-driving cars. Apple has also brought in several other former Tesla employees, including former Tesla engineering vice president Michael Schwekutsch, now senior engineering director for Apple’s Special Projects Group.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk had even said last year that he had once tried to start talks to sell the company to Apple, but Cook refused to meet.
“You know, I never spoke to Elon, although I have great admiration and respect for the company he built. I think Tesla did an incredible job, not only of establishing leadership, but of keeping leadership for a while. so long in EV space. So I have a great appreciation for them, “Cook told Swisher.
Most recently, CNBC reported that Apple was close to finalizing an agreement with Hyundai-Kia to manufacture an autonomous Apple electric vehicle at the Kia assembly plant in West Point, Georgia. However, car manufacturers subsequently withdrew their claims.
Listen to the full interview with Tim Cook here.
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