Earlier this year, Apple canceled its decade-long Project Titan electric car initiative, but a new report from DigiTimes says that Apple’s electric vehicle ambitions might not be over. According to the story, Apple is “assessing the possibility of teaming up with a certain US EV startup, and Rivian is a very likely candidate.”
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Rivian brought its brand new R2 electric SUV to Austin, Texas this week for one of its first public show and tells. I made the trek to the city this morning to check it out and tried to snap a bunch of pictures. Head below to check them out.
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Last May, Ford was the first automaker to announce its plans to adopt Tesla’s charge connector, now known as the North American Charging Standard (NACS). In addition to adding Tesla’s connector to its own EVs in 2025, Ford also said it would make a free adapter available to existing Ford EV owners.
Starting today, Ford says that eligible Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning owners can request their free CCS to NACS adapter. The first deliveries are slated to begin shipping in March. Ford is also starting to roll out a software update that unlocks Tesla Supercharger support for Mach-E and Lightning vehicles.
“Today, Ford F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E retail customers are the first of any non-Tesla automaker to gain access to Tesla Superchargers across the U.S. and Canada,” Ford says.
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Rivian is rolling out an update to its iPhone app with support for Live Activities. This lets Rivian drivers track their car’s charging progress right from their iPhone’s Lock Screen or the Dynamic Island on iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15.
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Bloomberg reports that Apple has officially canceled its effort to build an electric car. The move was announced internally by Apple COO Jeff Williams and Kevin Lynch, who had been leading the Apple Car project since 2021.
“Apple’s most senior executives finalized the decision in recent weeks,” the report says. The project had reached a “make-or-break point” inside Apple, with Tim Cook also facing pressure from shareholders to make a decision.
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Tesla now supports the iPhone’s Ultra Wideband chip for improved Phone Key performance, at least on some cars. Apple started including the Ultra Wideband chip with the iPhone 11, allowing for better nearby interaction between an iPhone and other devices equipped with UWB technology.
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Apple veteran DJ Novotney is departing the company for a new role at Rivian, according to a report from Bloomberg. Novotney, a vice president of hardware engineering, has spent almost 25 years at Apple and worked across multiple generations of the iPod, the iPhone, the Apple Watch, and more. His LinkedIn page hasn’t yet been updated, but he is shown pictured next to a Rivian.
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Ford today has officially announced its new next-generation in-car infotainment system. While Ford is doubling down on its own native experience, it’s also expanding its commitment to CarPlay.
I had a chance to visit Ford’s headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan last week for a sneak preview of the new “Ford and Lincoln Digital Experience.” Here’s what you need to know…
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Last month, Ford began notifying dealers that it planned to add Apple Maps EV routing to the F-150 Lightning before the end of the year. That rollout has now commenced, with the first wave of lucky F-150 Lightning drivers now able to tap into Apple Maps for their EV routing needs.
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Apple Maps EV routing, a feature that first debuted at WWDC in 2020, will soon expand to its third car. Ford is reportedly informing dealers that its F-150 Lightning electric truck will support EV routing in Apple Maps starting sometime later this year…
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Earlier this year, GM announced its boneheaded decision to ditch CarPlay in all of its future EVs, opting for a partnership with Google instead. The company has received an incredible amount of backlash since that announcement, and unsurprisingly, GM dealerships are also none too happy about the move.
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Hyundai’s complicated relationship with CarPlay might soon get a little bit easier to understand. A new report this week suggests that Hyundai plans to add support for wireless CarPlay and Android Auto to its cars that are also equipped with integrated satellite navigation, starting later this year. Historically, Hyundai cars with integrated navigation have only supported wired CarPlay.
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With iOS 17 this year, Apple is further expanding on its set of features in Apple Maps for electric car owners. Starting this year, Apple Maps will show real-time charging availability information and let drivers choose a preferred charging network.
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Porsche is signing on to be the second EV maker to officially adopt support for EV routing in Apple Maps. This means that Porsche Taycan drivers can now use Apple Maps EV routing via CarPlay, signaling Porsche’s continued commitment to CarPlay as other automakers neglect Apple’s platform.
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While Rivian isn’t working on CarPlay support, the EV maker is planning a few other features that Apple fans will appreciate. In a recent Q&A session this week, Rivian’s head of software development, Wassym Bensaid, revealed that the company is actively testing support for allowing Apple Watch to serve as a key for R1T and R1S vehicles.
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As companies like GM and Rivian face backlash for failing to adopt Apple’s CarPlay platform, Ford is doing the exact opposite. In a statement to 9to5Mac, Ford explained its reasoning for supporting CarPlay…and it has us pondering the future of Ford’s relationship with Apple and next-gen CarPlay.
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CarPlay is available on the vast majority of cars today, including on electric vehicles from the likes of Ford, Polestar, and others. One of the most notable CarPlay holdouts (alongside Tesla) is Rivian, and new comments from CEO RJ Scaringe today make it clear that the up-and-coming EV company has no plans to adopt Apple’s platform…
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General Motors is making the controversial decison to phase out its support for Apple’s CarPlay platform. Instead of supporting CarPlay, GM is teaming up with Google to design custom built-in infotainment systems for future electric cars. This comes after GM went all-in CarPlay just a few years ago…
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Apple is pushing ahead with its efforts to expand the team working on Apple Car. A new report from Bloomberg today indicates that Apple has hired Luigi Taraborrelli, a 20-year veteran of the Italian car company Lamborghini. This marks a major addition to the Project Titan team as Apple aims to release a car later this decade.
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As reported earlier this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook is attending the Sun Valley Conference this week in Idaho, often referred to as a “summer camp for billionaires.” While we rarely learn much about what goes on at Sun Valley each year, a fun Friday story this year is that Tim Cook has been spending some time checking out the Rivian electric truck and SUV.
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Apple is continuing to press ahead with its efforts to build a fully self-driving electric car, despite a number of personnel changes and strategy shifts over the years. Now, a new report from Bloomberg indicates that Apple has hired Desi Ujkashevic, a 31-year Ford veteran, to help it ramp up efforts on the Apple Car project.
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After a month of safe and cautious driving, I finally achieved a Safety Score of 99 last week, and shortly thereafter, I was granted access to the Full Self-Driving Beta for my 2021 Model Y. The experience with the FSD Beta over the last seven days has made a few things clear: it’s very much a beta, but it’s very, very impressive when it works.
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The $19 Apple Polishing Cloth turned out to be the star of Apple’s October special event, with orders facing delays until late January. Now, Tesla is naturally looking to cash in on the overpriced accessory hype, with the carmaker introducing a new “Cyberwhistle.”
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Bloomberg is reporting today that Apple’s self-driving car project has suffered a major setback. According to the report, Ford has poached Doug Field from Apple. Field joined Apple from Tesla and had been one of the key players on the Project Titan team, serving as a VP on the special projects team.
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