Apple car - page 3

Apple’s talks with Nissan about collaborating on an electric car may have fizzled, the Financial Times reported Sunday.

Welcome, Apple…. Seriously.

That, in essence, seems to be the message from Volkswagen chief exec Herbert Diess in a recent interview, responding to rumors about the Apple car.

“The car industry is not a typical tech sector that you could take over at a single stroke,” Diess said in a recent interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. “Apple will not manage that overnight.”

When it comes to iPad Pro, bigger would be better. And when it comes to iPhone 12 mini, smaller was definitely not better – at least from a sales perspective.

Get those perspectives in this week’s top opinion/analysis pieces from Cult of Mac Magazine. Then enjoy the rest of the week’s top Apple news, how-tos and reviews. It’s all free and ready to download and read on your favorite iOS device.

P.S. After weeks of Apple car rumors, don’t miss our thought experiment that explores five ways Cupertino could shake up our ideas about automobiles.

Apple’s rumored electric vehicle could be just a nice luxury item that appeals to Apple fans with a lot of disposable income, similar to the HomePod or AirPods Max — but far more expensive. Or it could alter the automotive experience in a far more profound, Apple-esque manner.

I’d bet on the latter option. Apple doesn’t do things by halves. Steve Jobs famously stated that he wanted to build a personal computer that would put a ding in the universe. The iPhone, Apple Stores, the Apple Watch, iTunes and the App Store — those all changed the way that we use technology on a regular basis. They solved a bigger problem than just giving us a nice, Apple-branded version of an existing product to play with.

If Apple makes a car, it will likely remake the way we think about cars. Here are five ways Cupertino could do that.

Nissan is the latest automaker mentioned as a possible manufacturing partner to produce the rumored Apple car.

Makoto Uchida, Nissan’s CEO, was asked about teaming with Apple at a press conference Tuesday. Uchida responded that Nissan should be looking to “work with companies that are knowledgeable, with good experience, through partnership and collaboration,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

That’s not exactly a “yes,” but it’s certainly not a “no,” either.

Apple Car on-road testing increased substantially in 2020. The number of miles driven went up 2.5 times. It’s another sign the company is getting more serious about its self-driving vehicle.

According to the latest news, talks between Hyundai and Apple may have stalled. Still, if things start up again, the South Korean automaker’s E-GMP platform could be key to Apple’s ambitions to build an electric vehicle.

Hyundai’s promising E-GMP platform has a lot to love.

Apple and Hyundai may have had the business equivalent of a high school relationship in the past few weeks. First they were just friends, then going steady, and now they appear to have broken up — and Apple’s got the hots for someone else. All on a suitably compressed timeline, of course.

Bloomberg reported the breakup Sunday, saying Apple has paused discussions with Hyundai and affiliate Kia Motors about building an electric car. Apple’s now supposedly talking to other automobile companies about a possible deal.

After years of low idling, the Apple car rumors are really revving up. Possible deals with Kia and other automakers … whispers about secret supply-chain maneuvers … even a surprising claim that Cupertino’s first cars “will not be designed to have a driver.”

That’s the kind of Apple car news you’ll find in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine.

You’ll also get more potential revelations about that other top-secret Apple endeavor — building a headset. Whether that will be a $3,000 niche VR model or something a little more down to earth remains to be seen.

And if that’s not enough good Apple news for one week, Snoopy is back for new adventures on Apple TV+. We’ve got reviews of The Snoopy Show as well as the latest episodes of Dickinson and Losing Alice.

Kia reportedly started contacting potential partners in Georgia about working on the Apple car, The Wall Street Journal says.

This is the latest development as Apple and Kia parent company Hyundai supposedly prepare to team up in a $3.6 billion deal to build a self-driving electric vehicle. Kia reportedly could manufacture as many as 100,000 Apple cars per year.

No one will ever drive an Apple car, according to leaked information. Apple is reportedly planning a vehicle that’s completely autonomous. It’ll be programmed, not driven.

That would make it less like what Tesla offers and more like what Alphabet’s Waymo is developing.

Apple could be poised to sign a $3.6 billion deal with Kia Motors to build Apple Car, Bloomberg reports Wednesday, citing Korean news outlet DongA Ilbo.

The report says Apple and Kia, which is owned by Hyundai, could sign a deal as soon as February 17. It would then aim to “introduce Apple cars in 2024,” with a possible target of produce 100,000 electric vehicles per year, according to DongA Ilbo.

Apple reportedly hired Manfred Harrer for its top-secret self-driving vehicle project. It’s a telling move because Harrer previously was head of chassis development at Porsche. This is a clear sign that the Mac-maker is planning an Apple car, not simply an autonomous vehicle system to be licensed to automakers.

An Apple car could ship in 2025, and will be “positioned as a very high-end” model in terms of pricing, claims TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Kuo doesn’t give a dollar figure. But he writes that the sticker price, as well as the cost of Apple car components, will come in much higher than a those for a regular electric vehicle.

Hyundai executives are reportedly split on whether the South Korean automaker should partner with Apple to build an electric car. Their concerns, which are supposedly “dimming the outlook” for a deal, apparently center on fears that Hyundai could become simply a contract manufacturer for Cupertino.

Programmers with years of automotive experience can apply now to help create the Apple Car. Apple’s website lists a number of job openings that, reading between the lines, appear to be for the team that’s building Apple’s self-driving vehicle.

Dan Riccio, one of Apple’s top designers, is moving to a mysterious new role in Cupertino.

After joining Apple in 1998, Riccio worked on loads of groundbreaking products, from the first iMac to last year’s AirPods Max and the M1-powered Macs. Now, he’s become Apple’s “vice president of engineering.”

Going forward, Riccio says he will be “focusing all my time and energy at Apple on creating something new and wonderful that I couldn’t be more excited about,” according to a press release Monday.

Hyundai’s Kia Corporation will reportedly be the company responsible for working with Apple on the electric, self-driving Apple Car project, a new report states.

As per the South Korean news outlet, eDaily, “If Kia decides to do this, the Apple Car production base will be at Kia’s Georgia plant in the US.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook refused to take the bait about Apple Car during a Sunday interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News. After Cook commented that Apple continues “making the best products in the world,” Wallace asked if that would include an Apple Car.

Cook responded by laughing, and said he “can’t comment on rumors and so forth.” Wallace then pushed back, saying that Cook could comment, he was just choosing not to. “You’re right,” Cook said, ending the exchange. “I choose not to. Touché.”

Apple manufacturer Foxconn is setting up an automotive arm, just as Cupertino is reportedly gearing up to build an Apple Car. This could make Foxconn a prime manufacturing partner, much in the same way that the Taiwanese company currently assembles iPhones and other devices for Apple.

Hyundai is rumored to be on the verge of signing a deal with Apple to build an electric car. But Hyundai wasn’t the first automaker Apple approached about a deal, a new report claims.

As per The Verge, Apple held meetings with the California-based EV startup Canoo in early 2020. The two companies discussed options such as an Apple investment or even an outright acquisition, sources familiar with the conversations suggest.

More details have emerged about Apple and Hyundai’s reported partnership to build an autonomous electric car. A Sunday article published by Korea IT News, via Reuters, claims the two companies will sign a deal by March. They will then start production around 2024 in the United States — with a trial before then.

Hyundai last week said that it had been in conversations with Apple. The reports send Hyundai shares skyrocketing by close to 20%.

An augmented reality Mac powered by Apple glasses offers a glimpse of what computing might look like in the future.

Yes, it’s just a concept. But man, is it gorgeously detailed. We talked with concept designer Dominik Hofacker about his fascinating concept, and you can read all about it in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Download it now to read on your iOS device, or get the links below.

We’ve also got the latest news and rumors on the the long-rumored Apple Car and AirTags (not to mention those Apple AR glasses that Hofacker is talking about). Plus, we’ve got how-tos and reviews (including a second take on AirPods Max and a look at the second anachronistic season of Dickinson on Apple TV+).

Hyundai confirmed Thursday that it engaged in talks with Apple, lending more credibility to the possibility of an Apple Car co-developed with an established automotive company.

A spokesperson for Hyundai Motors provided the confirmation (which also mentioned Apple speaking with a “variety of global automakers”) to CNBC. The statement followed a report from Korean website Hankyung that claimed Apple was working with Hyundai on both the car and battery technology to power it.

Apple’s plan to make a self-driving vehicle is back on track, according to an unconfirmed report from a very reliable source. But the Apple Car won‘t be out for several years.

Still, as part of the effort the company recently snapped up Tesla’s head of autonomous vehicle software development  to work on the project.