Posted on 03/01/2015 3:58:35 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Just a few weeks ago, the idea that Apple might make a car seemed like an outlandish rumour. Today, it's accepted by many as gospel. Numerous reports have filtered through in recent days, providing more detail on Apple's automotive ambitions.
Of course, nothing has been confirmed yet. The Apple Car would be a massive, multi-year undertaking. But here's what we've heard so far:
It's called Project Titan. The detail comes via a report from the Wall Street Journal.
It's an electric car. This puts the company in competition with Tesla, which develops cutting edge electric-powered vehicles. VC and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis has predicted Apple will acquire Tesla in 18 months — for an eye-watering $75 billion. Apple CEO Tim Cook has also expressed a repeated interest in renewable energy. The company recently announced it's building a $850 million solar plant to power its California operations.
It looks like a minivan. The prototype could be subject to change before it hits the roads, however.
Apple has hundreds of people working on Project Titan, including senior figures from the automotive industry. This includes former Ford engineer Steve Zadesky, who helped build the iPhone. There's also Johann Jungwirth, who was Mercedes Benz's R&D chief before being hired by Apple in September 2014.
Apple employees have been working on Project Titan for more than a year, and this team has permission to grow to 1,000-strong. This is backed up by a previous FT report, which claimed Apple has "dozens" of employees working at a "new top-secret research lab" — and is "recruiting experts in automotive technology and vehicle design."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I don’t want it if you have to log into iTunes to charge it. :0)
Another speculative iCar article ... LOL ...
I don’t plug my iPhone or iPad into iTunes to charge it, so why would this be the case.
AND FURTHERMORE ... where did you get the idea that Apple was building a car?! I’ll guarantee you ... it wasn’t from APPLE ... :-) ...
A waste of money.
ROFLMAO
Keep in mind that these are ALL HIGHLY SPECULATIVE articles with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from Apple in which they confirm this in the least. AND ... they won’t either, because Apple doesn’t do that with any of their projects they are working on.
ALSO ... whatever it is that Apple is working on, they’ve said before that for every “YES” (okaying final production for something) they have 1,000 “NOs”!!
I wouldn’t depend on any outside article which tries to speculate that Apple is making a car ... :-) ...
I hope it’s not an iSetta.
Why buy Tesla for $75 billion?
Just wait until the next financial crisis / recession and they can pick it up in bankruptcy for pennies on the dollar.
3-D printing is just one of those technologies that has yet to achieve critical mass but will soon.
Take a time machine back to 1976. Kodak invents the first digital camera (.01 megapixel) but shelves the product and refuses to develop it because they didn't want to cannibalize their existing film and camera cash cow.
As a result, Kodak goes from a $23b company to bankruptcy in a matter of just a few years during the 2000s. Almost zero people are purchasing film and traditional cameras.
There are Fortune 500 companies that will not be around 10 years from now because they wanted to cling to old business models.
“I hope it’s not an iSetta.”
More than likely an iCrasha.
What's wrong with having a light, powerful car made largely with carbon fiber or graphene with one of the new IC engines and a five or six speed manual transmisison??
I believe the push behind self driving cars is that over the next 20 years the US see increasingly larger numbers of crippled/disabled/frail baby boomers.
It’s basically just common sense market analysis.
Wonder how many centuries that will take to pay for itself.
Fortunately for Apple, I trust they plan to push into the electrical generation business.
Tesla is such an interesting case.
I don’t believe they would even exist without the ability to sell ev “credits” to other manufacturers for California and the Northeast States Consortium and of course federal and state tax credits to the purchasers of the cars.
I’ve long felt it was a slam dunk short, but I know never to bet against a regime affiliate.
Well, wind and solar have been stunningly beneficial to regime affiliates.
There are days when I’d like to party like a regime affiliate myself...
It will probably have at least 4 wheels.
I’m going to wait for the hovercraft model. (iCar 2H)
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