Steve Jobs may not have been holding the reigns at Apple when the company started working on its first car, but the co-founder and former CEO certainly had an interest in futuristic vehicles.
In fact, back in May 2010, Jobs met with the creators of the secret V-Vehicle prototype — a small, lightweight car powered by gas that was designed to sell for just $14,000.
The V-Vehicle was made out of polypropylene and glass fiber, and was 40 percent lighter than a conventional car. It also cost 70 percent less to produce, and boasted upgradable body parts.
Within hours of receiving an email from Jobs, V-Vehicle inventor Bryan Thompson flew to San Francisco to show off the car. It was taken to Jobs’ house, and the Apple chief spent 15 minutes sitting inside the vehicle, telling Thompson what needed to be improved.
Here’s what Jobs had to say, according to The Guardian:
“Jobs told Thompson to think about emphasizing the plastic rather than disguising it. ‘Let the material be honest,’ he said, noting the dashboard, which was made of fibre-wood, a composite of synthetic resin and wood pulp. He suggested it would look better designed as one piece that ‘evoked a sense of high precision’ — an idea Jobs often returned to with Apple’s chief design officer Jonathan Ive.”
During the demonstration, Jobs’ son Reed reportedly came outside to complain about an iPhone prototype but was told to “get back in the house.”
Thompson is said to have learned more about plastics during that 15 minutes than he did during his years in design school and the auto industry combined. Jobs also told him what he should do to improve the car’s exterior.
“A taut surface has a sense that it’s full of energy, like an animal ready to pounce. It’s a subconscious thing that gives the product an impression of high quality and confidence,” Thompson says. “He didn’t spell out the solutions; that’s what I do.”
Thompson spent his flight home sketching ideas based on Jobs’ advice, but unfortunately, the V-Vehicle failed.
It seems unlikely Apple would be using many of Thompson’s ideas in the Apple Car. The latter is likely to be powered by electricity rather than gas, and it certainly won’t be cheap.
But if there’s one thing Apple could learn from, it’s the V-Vehicle’s lightweight design, which used a “space body” technique that was typically reserved for high-end cars like the Ferrari 360 at the time.
