Not only is Apple working on a car (said to be an all-electric minivan of sorts), but it’s actually been at it since “late last year.” A report published by the Wall Street Journal says the tech giant has actually devoted several hundred of its employees on what is internally designated as “Project Titan.”
The leader of the project is, according to the source, an ex-Ford engineer called Steve Zadesky, although The Financial Times also reports that Apple has been recruiting brains from the automotive industryy, like former Mercedes research boss Johann Jungwirth.
Moreover, Apple is supposedly also talking to Magna Steyr, a company not foreign to manufacturing vehicles for other companies (like Peugeot’s RCZ or the MINI Countryman and Paceman; they also made the Aston Martin Rapide from 2010 – 2012).
The most recent bit of information on the matter comes from Reuters. It quotes an unnamed industry source, who said “Fully automated driving is an evolution. Carmakers will slowly build the market for autonomous cars by first releasing connected and partially automated cars. Apple is interested in all the potential ways you can evolve the car; that includes autonomous driving.”
So, to answer the hypothetical question that is raised after all of this, yes, Apple is going after Google’s self driving car. It’s been suggested that the unmarked, camera-packing Chrysler Voyagers spotted last year could be Apple’s prototype self-drivers – see the video and opening photo courtesy of Claycord.
Stay tuned; more is sure to come!