Apple electric car project

The Apple electric car project, codenamed "Titan",[1] is an electric car project allegedly undergoing research and development by Apple Inc.[2] To date, Apple has yet to comment on any plans to make an electric car.

It is rumored a substantial number of Apple employees are working on this project.[3][4][5]

The project was rumored to be approved by Apple CEO Tim Cook in late 2014 and assigned to Vice President Steve Zadesky, a former Ford engineer as project in-charge.[6] For the project, Apple was rumored to have hired Johann Jungwirth, the former-president and chief executive of Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America (Jungwirth is now working for Volkswagen Group),[7] as well as at least one transmission engineer.[8][9][10][11]

Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs had plans to design and build a car, according to Apple board member and J.Crew Group CEO Mickey Drexler, who said that discussions about the concept surfaced around the time that Tesla Motors debuted its first car.[12] Former Apple iPod Senior VP Tony Fadell confirmed that Steve Jobs was interested in an Apple car back in 2008, shortly after the original iPhone was introduced.[13]

Reports indicate that the company has been offering incentives to Tesla employees to join Apple.[14] The Wall Street Journal reports that the product would resemble more of a minivan than a car,[3] and The Sydney Morning Herald says that production could start as soon as 2020.[15][16]

History

2015

In May 2015, Apple investor tycoon Carl Icahn stated that he believed the rumors that said Apple would enter the automobile market in 2020, and that logically Apple would view this car as "the ultimate mobile device".[17][18]

In August 2015, The Guardian reported that Apple were meeting with officials from GoMentum Station,[2] a testing ground for connected and autonomous vehicles at the former Concord Naval Weapons Station in Concord, California.[19]

In September 2015, there were reports that Apple were meeting with self-driving car experts from the California Department of Motor Vehicles.[20][21][22][23]

According to The Wall Street Journal, it will be a battery electric vehicle, initially lacking full autonomous driving capability, with a possible unveiling around 2019.[24][25][26]

In October 2015, at The Wall Street Journal's WSJDLive conference at The Montage resort in Laguna Beach, California, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated about the car industry that: "It would seem like there will be massive change in that industry, massive change. You may not agree with that. That's what I think..."We'll see what we do in the future. I do think that the industry is at an inflection point for massive change." Cook enumerated ways that the modern descendants of the Ford Model T would be shaken to the very chassis—the growing importance of software in the car of the future, the rise of autonomous vehicles, and the shift from an internal combustion engine to electrification.[27]

In November 2015, various websites reported that suspected Apple front SixtyEight Research had attended an auto body conference in Europe.[28]

Also in November 2015, after unknown EV startup Faraday Future announced a $1 billion U.S. factory project,[29] some speculated that it might actually be a front for Apple's secret car project.[30][31]

2016

In 2016, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk stated that Apple will probably make a compelling electric car: "It's pretty hard to hide something if you hire over a thousand engineers to do it"[32]

In May 2016, there were reports indicating Apple was interested in electric car charging stations.[33]

The Wall Street Journal reported on July 25 that Apple had convinced retired senior hardware engineering executive Bob Mansfield to return and take over the Titan project.[34][35]

A few days later, on July 29, Bloomberg Technology reported that Apple had hired Dan Dodge, the founder and former chief executive officer of QNX, BlackBerry Ltd.’s automotive software division. According to Bloomberg, Dodge's hiring heralds a shift in emphasis at Apple's Project Titan, in which the company will give first priority to creating software for autonomous vehicles. However, the story said that Apple will continue to develop a vehicle of its own.[36]

On September 9, The New York Times reported dozens of layoffs in an effort to reboot,[37] presumably from a team still numbering around 1,000.[38]

The following week, reports surfaced that Magna International, a contract vehicle manufacturer, had a small team working at Apple's Sunnyvale lab.[39]

2017

After a period of no new reports, car project news flared up again in mid-April, 2017, as word spread that Apple joined a host of other companies (some widely known, others obscure) permitted to test autonomous vehicles on California roads.[40]

In mid-June, Tim Cook appeared in an interview with Bloomberg TV, in which he said Apple was "focusing on autonomous systems" but not necessarily leading to an actual Apple car product, leaving speculation about Apple's role in the convergence of three disruptive "vectors of change": autonomous systems, electric vehicles and ride-sharing services.[41]

In mid-August, various sources reported that the car project was focusing on autonomous systems, now expected to test its technology in the real world using a company-operated inter-campus shuttle service between the main Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino and various Silicon Valley offices, including the new Apple Park.[42][43][44]

The next notable round of Titan news, at the end of August, was about 17 former Titan team members, braking and suspension engineers with Detroit experience, being hired by autonomous vehicle startup Zoox,[45][46] described as "a robotics company pioneering autonomous mobility as-a-service".[47]

Oct. 2016 reports claimed the Titan project has a 2017 deadline to determine its fate - prove its practicality and viability, set a final direction.[48][49]

In November 2017, Apple employees Yin Zhou and Oncel Tuzel published a paper on VoxelNet, which uses a convolutional neural network to detect three dimensional objects using lidar.[50]

Transportation/tech website Jalopnik reported in late November that Apple was recruiting automotive test engineering and tech talent for autonomous systems work, and appeared to be surreptitiously leasing, via third parties, a former Fiat Chrysler proving grounds site in Surprise, Arizona (originally Wittman).[51]

2018

In May 2018, a New York Times article reported on major project news.[52] After proposed partnership arrangements with Germany's high-end brands BMW and Mercedes-Benz failed, as did potential alliances with Nissan, BYD Auto, McLaren Automotive, and others, Apple has reportedly partnered with Volkswagen to produce an autonomous employee shuttle van based on the T6 Transporter commercial vehicle platform (available in Europe in diesel and gasoline versions), transformed into autonomous electric versions at VW's Italdesign subsidiary.

While Apple does its best to keep its autonomous vehicles plans secret, regulatory filings do provide some factual insight into its activities. In September, Apple was reportedly in third place in the number of California autonomous vehicle permits with 70, behind GM Cruze (175) and Alphabet's Waymo (88).[53]

List of names claimed to be working on the unconfirmed project

  • Jamie Carlson, an engineer on Tesla's Autopilot self-driving car program, and before that he worked on automotive vision systems for Michigan-based supplier Gentex Corp.[54]
  • Megan McClain, a former Volkswagen AG engineer with expertise in automated driving.[54]
  • Vinay Palakkode, a graduate researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, a hub of automated driving research.[54]
  • Xianqiao Tong, an engineer who developed computer vision software for driver assistance systems at microchip maker Nvidia Corp NVDA.O.[54]
  • Paul Furgale, former deputy director of the Autonomous Systems Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.[54]
  • Sanjai Massey, an engineer with experience in developing connected and automated vehicles at Ford and several suppliers.[54]
  • Stefan Weber, a former Bosch engineer with experience in video-based driver assistance systems.[54]
  • Lech Szumilas, a former Delphi research scientist with expertise in computer vision and object detection.[54]
  • Doug Betts, former global quality leader at Fiat Chrysler.[55]
  • Johann Jungwirth, former head of research and development at Mercedes[56] – left for VW in Nov. 2015.[57]
  • Mujeeb Ijaz, a former Ford Motor Co. engineer, who founded A123 Systems's Venture Technologies division, which focused on materials research, electrical battery cell product development and advanced concepts (who helped recruited four to five staff researchers from A123, a battery technology company)[15]
  • Nancy Sun, formerly vice president of electrical engineering at electric motorcycle company Mission Motors in San Francisco.[58]
  • Mark Sherwood, formerly director of powertrain systems engineering at Mission Motors.[58]
  • Eyal Cohen, formerly vice president of software and electrical engineering at Mission Motors.[58]
  • Jonathan Cohen, former director of Nvidia's deep learning software.[59] Nvidia uses deep learning in its Nvidia Drive PX platform, which is used in driver assistance systems.[60]
  • Chris Porritt – former Tesla vice president of vehicle engineering and former Aston Martin chief engineer.[61]
  • Alex Hitzinger is a German engineer who until 31st of March 2016 was the Technical Director of the Porsche LMP1 project.[62] He previously worked as Head of Advanced Technologies for the Red Bull and Toro Rosso Formula One teams.[63]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hotten, Russell (March 4, 2015). "Carmakers Face Challenge from Google and Apple". BBC News.
  2. 1 2 Harris, Mark (August 14, 2015). "Documents Confirm Apple Is Building Self-Driving Car". The Guardian. London.
  3. 1 2 Wakabayashi, Daisuke & Ramsey, Mike (February 13, 2015). "Apple's New Electric Car Could Give Tesla a Run for Its Money". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  4. ↑ Gallagher, Dan (February 17, 2015). "What Apple Is Driving At". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  5. ↑ Fitzpatrick, Alex (February 13, 2015). "Apple Reportedly Hiring for Mystery Car Project". Time. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  6. ↑ Jones, Chuck (February 14, 2015). "Hitting the Brakes on Apple's Electric Car". Forbes. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Johann Jungwirth appointed as Head of Digitalization Strategy at the Volkswagen Group". November 10, 2015. Archived from the original on March 20, 2016.
  8. ↑ Flanagan, Will (February 13, 2015). "A Titanic Announcement: Apple's Making Cars". Chicago Inno. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  9. ↑ Kahn, Jordan (February 19, 2015). "Revealed: The Experts Apple Hired to Build an Electric Car". 9to5Mac. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  10. ↑ Higgins, Tim (February 17, 2015). "Apple Uniquely Positioned to Be Car Company". The Detroit News. Bloomberg News. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  11. ↑ Taylor, Edward & Oreskovic, Alexei (February 14, 2015). "Apple Studies Self-Driving Car, Auto Industry Source Says". Reuters. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  12. ↑ Colt, Sam (February 9, 2015). "Apple Board Member: 'Steve Jobs Was Gonna Design an iCar'". Business Insider. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  13. ↑ Satariano, Adam (November 4, 2015). "Steve Jobs Considered Building an Apple Car in 2008". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
  14. ↑ Andujar, Luis Miguel (February 13, 2015). "Apple Will Start Developing the Long-Waited iCar". TecHampster. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  15. 1 2 Higgins, Tim (February 20, 2015). "Apple Wants to Start Making Cars as Soon as 2020". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Apple iCar project: New hot wheels on the road-Technact.com". 2018-02-20. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
  17. ↑ Kawa, Luke (May 18, 2015). "Here's Why Carl Icahn Thinks Apple Will Surge to $240 per Share". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved May 18, 2015.
  18. ↑ Icahn, Carl C. (May 18, 2015). "Carl Icahn Issues Open Letter to Tim Cook". Retrieved February 9, 2016.
  19. ↑ "Vision: GoMentum Station". Retrieved August 14, 2015.
  20. ↑ Harris, Mark (September 18, 2015). "Apple Meets California Officials to Discuss Self-Driving Car". The Guardian. London.
  21. ↑ Thompson, Cadie. "One Big Sign the Apple Self-Driving Car Is Closer than We Thought". Tech Insider.
  22. ↑ Swartz, Angela (September 18, 2015). "More Evidence Unearthed that Apple Is Working on Driverless Car". San Jose Business Journal.
  23. ↑ Dove, Jackie. "Apple's Meeting with California DMV Suggests a Driverless Car Could Be on the Way". The Next Web.
  24. ↑ Wakabayashi, Daisuke (September 21, 2015). "Apple Speeds Up Electric-Car Effort, Sees 2019 Shipments". WSJ. Retrieved September 21, 2015.
  25. ↑ "Report: Apple's Electric Car Arriving in 2019". USA Today. September 21, 2015. Retrieved September 22, 2015.
  26. ↑ Raymundo, Oscar (September 21, 2015). "Report: Apple's Electric Car to Hit the Road in 2019 but It Won't Be Driverless". Macworld. Retrieved September 22, 2015.
  27. ↑ Chmielewski, Dawn. "Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'Massive Change' Is Coming to Cars". Re/code. Archived from the original on October 20, 2015. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  28. ↑ "Shadowy Group Linked to Apple's 'Project Titan' Spotted at Auto Industry Conference". Appleinsider. November 9, 2015.
  29. ↑ Pritchard, Justin (November 8, 2015). "A Mysterious Electric-Car Startup Is Building a $1 Billion Factory in California". Business Insider.
  30. ↑ Fingas, Roger (November 6, 2015). "Rumor Claims New Electric Car Maker Faraday Future Is Front for Apple". AppleInsider.
  31. ↑ Gorzelany, Jim (November 9, 2015). "Is Faraday Apple's Automotive 'Beard?'". Forbes.
  32. ↑ "Tesla Chief Elon Musk Says Apple Is Making an Electric Car". BBC News. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
  33. ↑ Love, Julia & Sage, Alexandria (May 26, 2016). "Exclusive: Apple Explores Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles". Reuters. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
  34. ↑ Daisuke Wakabayashi (July 25, 2016). "Apple Taps Bob Mansfield to Oversee Car Project". The Wall Street Journal.
  35. ↑ Zac Hall (July 25, 2016). "WSJ: Apple recruits retired hardware expert Bob Mansfield to lead Apple Car project". 9 to 5 Mac.
  36. ↑ atbwebb, Mark Gurman markgurman Alex Webb. "Apple Hires BlackBerry Talent With Car Project Turning to Self-Driving Software". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  37. ↑ Wakabayashi, Daisuke. "Apple Is Said to Be Rethinking Strategy on Self-Driving Cars". The New York Times. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  38. ↑ Bryan Chaffin (September 10, 2016). "Bob Mansfield Reportedly Shaking Up Apple Car Project With Layoffs". The Mac Observer.
  39. ↑ Kif Leswing (September 15, 2016). "This little-known company could be building Apple's car". Business Insider.
  40. ↑ Andrew J. Hawkins (April 14, 2017). "Apple just received a permit to test self-driving cars in California". The Verge.
  41. ↑ Ben Lovejoy (June 13, 2017). "Tim Cook says self-driving car tech 'incredibly exciting,' Apple may or may not make a car". 9 to 5 Mac.
  42. ↑ Daisuke Wakabayashi (August 22, 2017). "Apple Scales Back Its Ambitions for a Self-Driving Car". The New York Times.
  43. ↑ Mikey Campbell (August 22, 2017). "Self-driving campus shuttle to rise from ashes of Apple's 'Project Titan,' report says". AppleInsider.
  44. ↑ Matt Weinberger (August 22, 2017). "Apple reportedly scaled back its car ambitions because nobody could agree on what an Apple Car should do". Business Insider.
  45. ↑ Seung Lee (August 30, 2017). "Apple self-driving engineers head to startup Zoox". San Jose Mercury News.
  46. ↑ Juli Clover (August 30, 2017). "Autonomous Vehicle Startup Zoox Snags 17 Former Apple Automotive Engineers". MacRumors.
  47. ↑ "Zoox | Crunchbase". CrunchBase.
  48. ↑ Roger Fingas (October 17, 2016). "'Apple Car' project to choose new direction in late 2017 - report". Apple Insider.
  49. ↑ Berkeley Lovelace Jr. (October 17, 2016). "Apple executives to decide fate of self-driving car by late 2017: Report". CNBC.
  50. ↑ Yin Zhou; Oncel Tuzel. "VoxelNet: End-to-End Learning for Point Cloud Based 3D Object Detection" (PDF).
  51. ↑ Felton, Ryan. "Apple Might Be Leasing Chrysler's Old Proving Grounds To Test Autonomous Car Technology". Jalopnik. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  52. ↑ Nicas, Jack (23 May 2018). "Apple, Spurned by Others, Signs Deal With Volkswagen for Driverless Cars". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  53. ↑ "Apple's autonomous vehicle fleet swells 27% in four months". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-09-11.
  54. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Lienert, Paul & Love, Julia (August 21, 2015). "Tesla Engineer Joins Apple's Growing Team of Automated Car Experts". Reuters.
  55. ↑ Pagliery, Jose (July 21, 2015). "Apple Adds a Chrysler Exec to Its Team. Is a Car far Behind?". CNNMoney.
  56. ↑ Andronico, Michael (July 21, 2015). "Apple Electric Car Steers Closer to Reality". Tom's Guide.
  57. ↑ "VW Recruits Exec Linked to Apple Electric Car Project". Automotive News. November 10, 2015.
  58. 1 2 3 Love, Julia (October 19, 2015). "Apple's Auto Ambitions Sideswipe Electric Motorcycle Startup". Reuters.
  59. ↑ Bergen, Mark. "Apple Hires an Artificial Intelligence Expert from Nvidia. Is He Going to Work on Self-Driving Cars?". Re/code. Archived from the original on October 24, 2015.
  60. ↑ "Autonomous Car Development Platform from NVIDIA DRIVE PX2". NVIDIA. Retrieved 2018-07-12.
  61. ↑ "Ford: 'We Assume Apple Is Working on a Car'". BBC News. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
  62. ↑ "Porsche LMP1 Technical Director Hitzinger Quits - Ferdinand". Ferdinand Porsche Magazine. 2016-03-15. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
  63. ↑ Mark Hibben (December 16, 2016). "Apple: Evidence Mounts For A Full Self-Driving Car". Seeking Alpha.
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