What Apple car means for the automotive industry.
The disruption of Apple in the auto industry.
The Apple car rumor had quietened a little in recent times but has now taken a resurgence in 2021. It is no longer a rumor now, the Apple CEO Tim Cook has been quoted saying,
Tim Cook did not say that they are building an autonomous car but autonomous technologies, but those hints are enough to get people sold. According to many reputable sources including Reuters, Apple is indeed trying to build an electric car. Apple is a company known for its premium, stylish and sleek designs, which rarely disappoints. It is expected that the Apple car will be just like that, a thin powerful machine. Everyone is looking forward to being driven in an Apple car.
A month back rumors surfaced that Apple was partnering with Hyundai Kia to build its autonomous vehicle, only for the deal to fall off. Times of the Apple car might not be extremely near, but fear is great within the auto industry. With the cashflow Apple has, it can shake any industry it enters.
Why a car?
In 2008 when Tesla released the Roadster, it apparently piqued the interest of the late Apple CEO, Steve Jobs. The dream has not died as the years went by, especially if that was Jobs’ dream. The brilliant engineering behind the Roadster made Jobs jealous, and he wanted to have a car of his own. Steve Jobs decided against building a car back in 2008 due to the economic downturn and the crisis that faced the automotive industry. If the ambition was inspired by a Tesla, does that mean the Apple car will be a direct competitor to Tesla? The word competition and Apple does not sound well, rather a Tesla beater?
Building a car is a huge task because the auto industry is not as easy as it seems. It took Tesla 17 years to become profitable and since the launch of Hyundai in the 1960s the only car company to go mainstream is Tesla. The Apple car business has mixed prospects, it has both big advantages and disadvantages. Starting with advantages, Apple is one of the most popular brands amongst people with deep pockets. Its flagship smartphones cost well over a thousand dollars.
Apple has also made itself known for high-quality products and great customer support. It will be unjust not to mention that Apple has almost $200 billion dollars in cash waiting to burn. Launching an electric car would not be as difficult as it was for Tesla. Finally, Apple already has engineers with the know-how in fields like machine learning and AI, energy engineering, and software and hardware experts.
The grim side of things includes the fact that Apple has never built a car, the closest they have ever been is when building Apple car play. As things stand, they will be outsourcing the production of their car. This not only makes the process more gruesome but also means that they have to rely on other companies which could likely be their competitors
In all fairness, Apple has been outsourcing the production of their iPhone, and they turned out quality. There is no congruence here since the two industries are different, it is like comparing apples with oranges. Producing smartphones relies mostly on the software and the hardware is secondary (but still important). Producing an autonomous car not only needs the initial planning and production but also testing and passing regulations.
Project Titan
The Apple car has earned itself a name, Project Titan. With a name like that, the entire auto industry will be bowing to Apple. It seems like Tesla is already feeling the wrath and might of Apple after poaching a lot of top talent from the reigning electric car king. Apple poached Tesla’s vice-president of engineering Chris Porritt who then left to join a Croatian car manufacture Rimac. Jamie Carlson, the lead engineer of Tesla’s autopilot system, and Powertrain test engineer John Ireland were also grabbed from Tesla. Over 5,000 individuals have been rumored to have worked on Project Titan since 2015. Apple is indeed serious about shaking things up. It is yet to be seen what “applenade” is brewing in Cupertino.
Vision.
Apple has been without a vision for its car. It is not known whether the car will be autonomous or semi-autonomous, but speculation is that it will be autonomous. After Bob Mansfield, a hardware expert came back from retirement, Apple is rumored to have decided on developing an autonomous system for a car that will be produced elsewhere. This has been slightly confirmed by Tim Cook when he said that Apple is working on an autonomous system. Again, the rumors with Hyundai Kia solidified the notion.
Conclusion
Apple being a leader in technology as it is, it would be unlike them to build anything below the industry standard. That would mean bettering Tesla’s technologies and building level 5 autonomous cars.
