Apparently Apple is making headlines for the last couple of days not for the usual reasons associated with them but because of some rumours talking about the tech giant’s intentions of building its own electric vehicle.
So far there was no actual proof of Apple’s intentions but earlier today news broke about a lawsuit filed against them by electric-car battery maker A123 Systems providing further evidence that Apple may be developing a car.
According to the lawsuit, A123 Systems accuses Apple for aggressively luring some of its leading engineers who were in charge of some of the company’s most crucial projects. The A123 claims that the engineers went to Apple in order to continue working in similar projects, violating this way their employment agreements.
“Apple is currently developing a large-scale battery division to compete in the very same field as A123,” the lawsuit read, which was reported earlier by legal website law360.com. Apart from Apple, the company also sued five former A123 employees.
So far none of the two companies have commented publicly on their legal dispute. A123 Systems is an industrial lithium-ion battery maker, specializing in big units that can be used in cars and buses. The engineers who left A123 were so important that the projects had been working on, were cancelled after their departure for Apple.
An unnamed auto industry source said last week that Apple has been busy hiring engineers with expertise in the automotive sector, including from Tesla Motors and has been talking with industry experts and officials because the iPhone maker really wants to make its own car.
If Apple confirms the rumours, it will join Google in the race for the next-gen automotive technologies. Google has been researching and developing for quite some time now autonomous-driving technologies which could lead to building their own self-driven vehicle.
Silicon Valley’s new love affair with cars has already made some industry experts to express their concerns, with ex-GM Boss Dan Akerson telling Bloomberg “they’d better think carefully if they want to get into the hard-core manufacturing. We take steel, raw steel, and turn it into car. They have no idea what they’re getting into if they get into that.”