Is Apple Developing A Car? Looking To Give Tesla “A Run For Its Money?”

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The ongoing friction between Apple and Tesla Motors appears to be getting even weirder, based on recent comments made by a reportedly anonymous Apple employee to Business Insider. The comments in question claim that Apple is entering the field of vehicle development, and is working on something that “will change the landscape and give Tesla a run for its money.”

These comments are of course unverified (and will remain so), but rumours that Apple was entering into the auto industry, in some fashion or other (beyond the Apple CarPlay infotainment system and self-driving cars), have been swirling around in the ether for some time now. That said, who actually thinks that Apple is going to develop a car?

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A far more likely possibility, to my mind — and one that matches well with the anonymous comments, and the poaching war between Tesla and Apple — concerns the autonomous driving system Apple is developing, something that would make sense given the company’s area of expertise, and also the fact that Tesla is known to be developing just such a technology itself.

Gas2 provides some thoughts:

So it’s obvious that Apple is working on something car related… but an actual car? That’s still a bit of a stretch. More likely, the tech company is hoping to dominate the world of increasingly connected cars, whether it be via autonomous driving software or greater car-phone integration. Or maybe, just maybe, the house that Jobs and Woz built has decided to remake the auto industry in its own image. Given the success of other Apple products, an iCar could be a technological marvel… and a proprietary nightmare. I’d much rather see Apple build a car of its own than ruin Elon Musk’s vision.

Hmm. Something about the idea of Apple actually pursuing such a market just doesn’t have the ring of truth to it, to my ears anyways. Perhaps there’s more to it than that, though? An approach or technology that Apple thinks could be “disruptive” in some fashion?

Given that all of this is speculation and anonymous comments from “Apple employees,” we obviously won’t know for some time. If at all. It could all very well just be vapor — whether intentionally created as a distraction/misdirection or not.

Image Credit: Apple/Tesla


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James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

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