That electric mobility is the future is becoming increasingly clear. And it’s not just about the future of the automotive industry. It also seems to be part of Apple‘s future, and the truth is that its present is shrouded in mystery. If you are interested in knowing what is known, so far, about this possible electric car from the Californian company, in this post we will explain it to you.
The key data of Apple’s electric car
The MacRumours portal has compiled all the information about the “Apple Car”, Apple’s future electric car. They detail everything from anecdotes about the design, the price and the design of the components, to even, Apple renting “secret” offices? So, step by step, we are going to see the most essential information of this car, in terms of the own car refers:
- It is known that the project started in 2014 as “Project Titan”
- Apple would design the chip for your car, and there is talk of TSMC being the one to manufacture it. Bloomberg describes this processor “with the power of four chips for Mac.” Although they speak of this chip as “Apple’s most powerful and advanced”, it remains to be seen exactly what it will consist of.
- They wanted it to be a 100% autonomous car, without pedals or steering wheel. But they have had to go back and make it “more conventional”.
- The car could be charged through the already existing public and private charging infrastructure .
Apple knows that it is a company that has no experience in the world of automobiles. On the one hand, it is committed to an autonomous driving system, which would have its own designed chips, its own operating system (carOS?) and LiDAR sensors, radars and cameras. The initial objective of Apple was that the driver did not have to drive, worth the paradox. But the road infrastructure itself, being able to guarantee a minimum of safety for passengers, and the laws and restrictions on autonomous driving, have made Apple have to back down.
- The car will have to work in manual mode. Driver attention is required.
- Autonomous driving would be, as in Tesla, limited on certain occasions. But it would not be nearly as autonomous as the company would like or want. Limited autonomy on highways , manual driving required in the city.
Who would make the Apple car?
The truth is that Apple has not established (at least that is yet known) any solid deal with any specific manufacturer to design and manufacture the car. But it has done hiring personnel from car brands, who have worked on specific car parts. Some examples are:
- The purchase of the company Drive.ai, specialized in autonomous driving.
- Signing of former Tesla VP Chris Porritt
- Signing of Doug Betts, former senior vice president of Chrysler Group
- Signing of Manfred Harrer, Prosche executive and chassis designer.
- Signing of Ulrich Kranz, who helped develop the BMW i3 and BMW i8
- Signing of Luigi Taraborrelli, former Lamborghini executive
And so follows a list with brands such as Ford, General Motors or Mercedes Benz . But they have not only signed personnel from the automotive industry. They have also hired staff specializing in connected vehicles, software platforms, artificial intelligence, and battery design and manufacturing technology.
In addition, it is rumored that Apple would be renting some “secret” offices in which it carries out the development of its electric car in Sunnyvale , California. There is also talk that they have a research laboratory in Berlin, and that at the end of 2018, Apple rented a manufacturing plant in Milpitas (California). Each of these offices would be directed at a different development objective. They also point out that, in virtual terrain, Apple registered three domains , which (at the time of writing this post) are empty and contain no information: apple.car, apple.cars and apple.auto. It is not known, either, if these domains would be related to CarPlay or would already be part of the “Titan Project”.