If you believe the rumors, Apple is working on an electric car.
Apple hopes to start making said car by 2020, according to a new report from Bloomberg. Exactly how an Apple vehicle will be made is anyone’s guess, but the company has been aggressively hiring automotive talent to make it a reality.
Making a car typically takes five to seven years, so the timeline suggests Apple is on track to deliver rather quickly. As always, Apple could scrap the project midway or shelve it for later (like it did with the iPad).
The Wall Street Journal recently said Tim Cook gave permission to assemble a 1,000-person team for the project, and Bloomberg reports that there are already about 200 people involved.
Employees from the likes of Mercedes and Tesla have joined Apple, and the company recently started putting together a “large-scale battery division.” Many of Apple’s own designers have extensive backgrounds in automobiles.
Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He’s the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like “ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.” He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
5 responses to “Apple wants first cars on the road by 2020”
Just pulling numbers out of thin air!! Not happening before 2025!!
Tesla’s aiming for 2017 for its affordable model. The FBI estimates 5-7 years for automated cars. Apple products typically take 3-5 years.
Sounds about right to me!
‘A car’ is not your typical Apple product
There are so many pieces and moving parts, it’ll be interesting to see how they make it apple-like.
Why Apple would not make a car
Apple executives repeat often they do not make products for the money. Well, if that was true, Apple products would be a lot cheaper. They do think money when they are thinking of bringing a new product to marker. And thats why they would probably never make a car. I say probably, because with Apple, you never can say never. But bear with me, let me show you the facts.
Apple will encounter the same problems the automotive industry has when they start making a car. Laws and regulations, safety and health is much stricter with cars than phones. each part must be certified, the car must be crash-tested, DOT approved, TÜV approved, and so on. That costs money. A lot of money. So, the design process costs a lot more than phones, still the volume of cars sold is a lot less than phones. Further, even with almost a complete “robotized” plant like Tesla has, costs a lot more people pr car than phones to produce. It costs way more to ship than a phone, and shipping is slow. Cars are not shipped with planes, like phones. A dealership would demand a lot more people to sell compared to phones when looking at the volume. More employees selling and managing, less number of cars sold compared to phones. Also the infrastructure for replacement parts for service and repair is way more costly compared to phones. Apple would need a lot of autoshops around the world for handling those services and repairs, because you cant ship it back to Apple with TNT like a phone when something breaks. People keep cars longer than phones. Dont forget the lawsuits! A lot die each year due to car malfunction, and dont say it could never happen to Apple. My iPhone starts to call random contacts when its -13 degrees farnheit, so just think what an iCar can do when its cold. Sensors freeze up, lenses gets covered with snow, lidars mucked up, its impossible to keep a car almost spotless when going for a drive in the winter.
So, this will force Apple to have approximately the same profit margins like Tesla. If Apple wanted Tesla kind of profit, they could have bought Tesla. Plain and simple. So, Im 99.9% sure Apple will never, or at least in the timeframe stated in this article, make its own car. Its just not worth it.