There’s currently a great deal of speculation surrounding Apple and its supposed first foray into the automobile industry, with reports suggesting that the hardware/software manufacturer is developing an “iCar.” However, there has been no confirmation of this from the historically secretive company, and opinion is divided on whether or not this is merely a rumor, or whether Apple really is gearing up to take on Tesla with its first electric car.
The report began with the Wall Street Journal, with sources close to Apple reportedly stating that CEO Tim Cook had greenlit a move into the automotive business and had assigned several hundred employees to the task in Silicon Valley, where a prototype for the vehicle is allegedly being created.
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A major point of contention for those who believe that Apple isn’t working on its first vehicle is that it doesn’t have the resources with which to do so. Of course, given their huge profitability they could well have gone out and bought said resources, including a building to house those several employees who have wandered off to Silicon Valley in order to give Tesla Motors a run for their money, but the general consensus among naysayers is that if they were to have done this, surely someone would have heard about it and it wouldn’t be the super confidential, top secret project it’s purported as being.
It’s also not the first time that an Apple car has been rumored to be in the works, with two separate rumors circulating last week that the company had secured top employees from two major car companies. However, Tim Cook claimed during the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference last week that the company was working on a number of new projects, which is adding to the speculation that the iCar/Apple Car could be among those as-yet-unannounced upcoming products.
According to the Wall Street Journal report, the vehicle will be a director competitor to Tesla’s electric cars and Apple will not challenge Google’s domain with self-driving vehicles. I’m thoroughly skeptical of this rumor being factual, and even if it is, then the Apple Car would still be a long way off from being announced given that it hasn’t even entered into its prototype stage yet.
The quote from the unnamed source in the WSJ piece addresses a rumor that Apple had entered into a bidding war with Tesla for employees with car expertise, with the source allegedly saying that while they had previously thought that these hires were related to Apple’s CarPlay platform, they now believe that Apple is looking to enter into the electric automobile industry in a big way. Only time will tell whether or not this is the case, but I wouldn’t start saving up your hard-earned cash just yet.
