Apple has 'several hundred' workers designing new electric car, codenamed 'Titan' - report

AppleInsider ^ | 13 Feb 2015 | Sam Oliver

[shove_it]

The smoke surrounding rumors of an Apple-branded vehicle has begun to thicken, as a new report says that Apple is indeed working on an all-electric vehicle that would take the shape of a minivan, with a huge team tasked to the project.

Apple has given the project codename "Titan," according to the Wall Street Journal. The company is said to have "several hundred" employees working in the group.

Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly green-lighted the project almost a year ago, and company executives have already begun to meet with potential contract manufacturers, including Canadian firm Magna Steyr. Apple iPod and iPhone designer Steve Zadesky, formerly of Ford, is said to be running the project.

The team — which has its own development facility away from the main Infinite Loop campus — could eventually swell to some 1,000 employees, and Zadesky has been given free reign to pull talent from any existing Apple group. Zadesky's group is reportedly researching "robotics, metals and materials consistent with automobile manufacturing."

The Journal's report follows hours after a similar missive from the Financial Times, which revealed a "top-secret research lab" staffed with automotive executives. Among those who have made the move is former Mercedes-Benz R&D head Johann Jungwirth, who joined Apple as a Mac systems engineering leader last fall.

Apple design chief Jony Ive is believed to have been personally recruiting automotive executives. Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed earlier that Apple has tried "very hard" to poach engineers from the electric carmaker, offering $250,000 bonuses and 60 percent pay raises.

Rumors of an Apple-branded vehicle have been around for years, but began to gather steam when Apple was revealed as the company behind a fleet of mysterious sensor-laden vans which have appeared around the U.S. in recent months. Those vans, which are almost certainly designed for data collection to augment Apple's mapping service, are unlikely to be directly related to any potential vehicle project, which is likely years away from production.

[Star Traveler]

I don’t think code names for secret projects qualify ... :-) ...

[shove_it]

HAHAHA!

Thanks for the SNL mammaries!

[Vendome]

How kewel is that!

[Swordmaker]

I am in favor of Apple paying the American taxes for their profits (which they have made) and repatriating all of that money.

Yes I am. And I want them to do that right now.

I am not now, or have I ever, advocated Apple paying more corporate tax.

What part of it's already BEEN TAXED do you fail to understand??? Why should our government have the privilege of being able to TAX IT AGAIN, after another government taxed that income? Are you in favor of double taxation? Our government provided ZERO services toward earning that profit. Provided ZERO infrastructure. Those profits were taxed in the jurisdictions in which they were earned! So why do you think they should be taxed AGAIN at 35% merely because their owner moved them from one bank to another across an international border? It is one of the biggest impediments to investments in the US there is.

The US government's socialist provincial attitude about this is one of the reasons that forces our companies to set up overseas divisions and our companies wind up in the situation of having to BUY their own products from their own divisions at the going wholesale price and that causes their prices to be HIGHER to consumers over here while foreign companies can just ship here at their cost. INSANE. Out damn liberals are poisoning our native businesses with their policies! And the liberals and bureaucrats keep loading on more and more impediments in the way of our businesses to create jobs in the USA. You are blaming the wrong people.

[Swordmaker]

Leave CNN alone. He is right, and your union red herring isn’t worth a damn. Unions in manufacturing are almost dead hear in the USA - 7% participation rate and falling. The labor to make a i-phone is 3-5% of the retail price. So I think Apple could safely make them in the USA and still make a huge profit.

It is NOT the labor. It is the ability to have everything there close at hand. Do you think we have that ability? Not anymore. Could we tool up a new plant in three months? No way in hell. FIVE YEARS MINIMUM if everything is optimal with all the permits, lawsuits are won, etc. Our business environment just is stultifying to that kind of quick movement.

The components of the device are manufactured all over the world. Many of the components of the iPhone and iPad are already made in the US. You really don't know what you are talking about.

Apple has been trying to bring as much manufacturing back to the US as possible. Better than 90% of the MacPro is made in the USA. . . and final assembly of all those parts is done in Austin, Texas. The iMac's final assembly is done in Elk Grove, CA. Over one MILLION jobs in the USA were created because of and are directly attributable to Apple.

[tacticalogic]

They appear to be claiming to have “created” jobs for everyone that worked on construction of any of their facilities, trying to create the impression that these are all full-time jobs working for Apple.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“How about calling it the “Road Apple”? “

I tried to name my last Country band “The Road Apples,” but the other guys didn’t like it. I thought it would be an hilarious name!

[Swordmaker]

If US company wants access to the US market with off shored slave labor produced products then they should have to pay a tariff. A 10% tariff out to balance things out. They can decide whether to pass that cost on to their customer or not. Pres. Washington would approve...

Tariffs applied only to things we were producing ourselves. NOT to things we were NOT, and could not be, producing. Read your history books.

Now, as to your "slave labor" canard. Every person who works on the Apple assembly lines is a person who stood in line to apply for the job and was selected out of thousands who applied. They are paid wages that are seven times the countries minimum wage. . . and THREE times the standard wage for people working on non-Apple products. They are there by choice. They are not SLAVES.

Apple is doing everything it can to stop the use of what are termed "Conflict Minerals" that are associated with slave and child labor, most of which comes out of Muslim Africa, and use only certified raw materials. This is an almost intractable problem for some metals, as one ingot may be indistinguishable from another after smelting and the end buyers are at the mercy of the ethical behavior the upline. Apple has staff whose only duty is to follow the trail upline and change unethical practices when they find them. As far as i know, no other company is doing this.

Even if manufacturing were brought back to the US, these problems would persist.

[Swordmaker]

You own shares of a company in bed with the ChiComs Comrade.

You have a problem then. Who will you invest anything with.

FoxConn's customer list.

As of January 2012, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.'s subsidiary FoxConn Technology Group assembles approximately 40% of the consumer electronics in the world according to numerous sources including Wikipedia and the New York Times. Here is a partial list of 52 of FoxConn's customers I've been able to compile from news articles where their contractural relationships were mentioned over the past five years. It is by no means an exhaustive list as it is only the top 52 customers out of thousands:

• Acer Inc. (Taiwan)
• Alcatel (France)
• Amazon (United States)
• Apple Inc. (United States)
• Archos (France)
• ASRock (Taiwan)
• Asus (Taiwan)
• Barnes & Noble (United States)
• BenQ (South Korea)
• Blackberry (Canada)
• Cisco (United States)
• Dell Inc.(United States)
• EVGA Corporation (United States)
• Fujitsu (Japan)
• GE Thomson
• Google (United States)
• Griffin Technologies (United States)
• Gründig Mobile (Germany)
• Hewlett-Packard (United States)
• HTC (Taiwan)
• Huawei (China)
• Intel (United States)
• IBM (United States)
• Kyocera Communications (Japan)
• Lenovo (China)
• Lenovo/Motorola Mobility (China)
• LG Lucky GoldStar (South Korea)
• Microsoft (United States)
• Microsoft MSI (Taiwan)
• Motorola Communications (United States)
• NCR (United States)
• NEC Casio Communication (Japan)
• Netgear (United States)
• Nintendo (Japan)
• Nokia Oyj (Finland)
• PackardBell (Netherlands)
• Panasonic (Japan)
• Philips (Netherlands)
• Pioneer Electronics (Japan)
• Samsung (South Korea)
• Sanyo (Japan)
• Sharp (Japan)
• Siemens (Germany)
• Sony (Japan)
• TCL Communication Technology (China)
• Telefunken (Germany)
• Thomson (France)
• Toshiba (Japan)
• Vizio (United States)
• Xiaomi (China)
• Zoostorm (New Zealand)
• ZTE (China)

The other 60% of the world's electronics in 2012 were essentially manufactured by other CHINESE non-HonHai owned manufacturing companies. . . and HonHai is not owned by the Chinese, but is Taiwanese. HonHai has grown its share to over 50% in the almost three years since 2012. Almost every single other investment you can name will have components made by one of the companies listed above. . . who will have it assembled by HonHai. OOPS, you DO have a problem.

[nascarnation]

Good info.
If you follow the FR “boycott” instructions, you’d have to become Amish.

Another interesting list is donors to Podesta’s Center for American Progress. Reads like Who’s Who of American Business.

[central_va]

Tariffs applied only to things we were producing ourselves. NOT to things we were NOT, and could not be, producing. Read your history books.

So you are of the opinion that the country that can put a man on the moon can not, could not produce an i-phone when Apple is an American company. Wow you Free Traitors are humorous lot.

Please, to stop the hypocrisy, go on record as saying nothing should be made in the USA. Taken to it's logical conclusion the snake oil you are peddling comes down to. The drain of the wealth creation in this country must stop. Even though the dividends may go down a tenth.

[Swordmaker]

actually, the business relation is with the Chicaps

The business relationship is with Terry Gau who is the CEO of HonHai Precision Industries, Ltd. which owns FoxConn Technology Group, Both companies are Taiwanese, Not Chinese. They have plants located in Taiwan, China, Brazil, Ireland, and the United States. In China, the plants operate under Chinese law and regulation.

[Toddsterpatriot]

Blame the government policies, not the engine of prosperity.

He's a liberal concern troll. It's what he does.

[Swordmaker]

Yeah, a car seems a bit far afield from their present business. Whatever it is, though ... in order for Apple to be following the same pattern it always has ... it has to be “hardware” ... which is then supported by their software.

• In 2001, a music player was far afield from their core computer business.
• In 2003, an online music store was far afield from the core computer and music player business.
• In 2007, a cellular phone was far afield from the core expertise in computers and cellular phones.
• In 2014, credit card payment systems were far afield from their core business competence.
• In 2015, a Watch is far afield from the core business . . .
• and in 2016, a car is far afield from. . .

rinse, repeat. . . ad infinitum

[Star Traveler]

Yeah! Thanks Swordmaker for your “always informative” posts. We’ve all learned a lot!

[Swordmaker]

I’m not going to criticize Apple for doing what every manufacturer of desktop, laptop and tablet computers, cell phones and the like does. I will give them credit for hiring more Americans from hourly on up the line than any other. Just one look at the huge server farm here in NC tells me that they’re far from offshoring every single thing. They don’t. Their top of the line desktop is entirely American-made. Who else can claim this?

Apple is the one US company in Consumer Electronics industry that has never off-shored its customer service. You call Apple Support in the USA, you are talking to an American. . . not someone in the Philippines or Bangladesh who claimed their name is "Bob" following a script. Find any other company in Electronics that has kept their customer service department here. About the only one that I know is Dells' Business Support. You won't get it for individual consumers. But go for business support from Dell and you will. Anybody else?

[Star Traveler]

Ummm ... “some people” think the iPhone costs a bit too much ... as it is right now (now, I’m not saying so, but some do). What you’re saying would make it a WHOLE LOT MORE than it is ... :-) ...

Do you know how much that Moon program cost? ... LOL ... $100 BILLION, and that was back then. It was some 500,000 people from 20,000 companies built the spacecraft, Saturn carrier rocket.

Come to think of it, your suggestion would make the iPhone about FOUR TIMES the price now ... :-) ...

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Look I don’t want to get in a shouting match with you.

You are a very informative poster, and I read quite a lot of your posts. Keep them coming and no criticism from here.

However I take issue with you, with Apple and with the majority of American companies anymore, who appear to have put their own profits, ahead of America.

I am not picking on Apple. It is most everyone doing this. What I object to is we have sent American companies to China, but China remains the same.

Communist. Doesn’t allow immigration, except for Chinese people. Doesn’t allow American companies to actually own anything (everything there, to the best of my knowledge, has a majority owner who is Chinese.)

What bothers me, is that Apple is big. And it is going to China, which just became the world’s largest exporter.

Not America. China.

So while I am not looking for an argument, I do not support this.

Bring back jobs, to America.

[Star Traveler]

I’ll be amazed, but then again, I’m still amazed with the iPhone and iPad.

[Toddsterpatriot]

What bothers me, is that Apple is big. And it is going to China, which just became the world’s largest exporter.

Gosh. If there were only something we could do to encourage business to expand here. In America. Now.

Besides whining, you've got that covered.