On the heels of Apple VP Doug Field’s departure as chief of the Apple Car project for a role at Ford, Cupertino has named longtime Apple Watch software head Kevin Lynch its new exec in charge of Project Titan. That’s the code name for the company’s self-driving electric car effort.

Development of an Apple car just hit another speed bump. Doug Field, who’d reportedly been managing the project, just left to join the Ford Motor Company.

This is surely a blow to Apple’s secretive automotive efforts. And the company was already multiple years away from having anything to put in a showroom, according to the latest leaks.

Apple apparently wants to build car batteries on its home soil. The company is eyeing a number of manufacturers as it plans to set up factories in the United States, according to a new report.

Foxconn, already one of Apple’s largest manufacturing partners, or Advanced Lithium Electrochemistry (Aleees) could get battery orders from Cupertino in the future, sources say.

Only 23 of Apple’s registered self-driving cars were active between December 2018 and November 2019, according to data provided to California’s Department of Motor Vehicles. In total, Apple’s fleet of modified Lexus RX450h SUVs travelled 7,544 miles during the period.

That’s down from the 79,745 miles its vehicles travelled in the previous year.

Apple is working hard on a self-driving car project, but company co-founder Steve “Woz” Wozniak seemingly isn’t convinced that autonomous vehicles will be ruling the roads anytime soon.

At a recent auto conference, Woz pulled back his predictions about when self-driving cars will take over; saying that there are too many challenges in Level 5 autonomous vehicles.

Apple has slightly increased the number of test drivers for its self-driving car project, although the total number of vehicles remains the same.

According to new figures from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Apple is currently testing 69 cars on public roads in California. That’s the same number it had in late April. However, Apple has increased its test drivers from 110 to 143 since then.

This week on The CultCast: Apple’s working on something BIG, and their massive increase in R&D spending proves it. Plus: we discuss all the surprises Apple unveiled in their recent earnings report, and it was another record breaker. And if you think your conversations with Siri are private, think again! Apple’s been caught reviewing your most personal sound bytes. And a new Moviepass competitor has emerged with a very interesting offer, but is it worth the price? All that and more!

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain..

Another high profile Tesla executive has joined Apple’s team, possibly signaling some significant progress is being made on the development of Apple’s car project.

The question of whether Apple is building a physical Apple Car or just a software platform hasn’t been confirmed either way.

But there are a few hints, such as the fact that Apple was just granted a patent for a special suspension system for a car. Whether that part of the project continues remains to be seen.

Dying to see what Apple’s idea of a car looks like? Here’s a bumper.

OK, so a patent, like the one for an extendable bumper awarded to Apple today, doesn’t exactly give us a detailed picture. But we at least see one more piece of evidence Apple remains a committed player in the future of cars – whether we drive them or not.