Earlier this year, Tim Cook called self-driving car technology “incredibly exciting” and said that Apple is focusing heavily on autonomous systems. During Apple’s earnings call today, however, Cook offered some more color on Apple’s investments in autonomy…
Last year, Apple was rumored to be working on an autonomous all-electric car codenamed ‘Project Titan’. The company later confirmed development work on an autonomous driving platform and CEO Tim Cook even referred to it as “a core technology” for the company, but it showed signs of giving up on developing an actual car.
But now Apple is reportedly working on electric car batteries with China’s biggest battery maker.
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While reports of Apple’s work on electric and self-driving cars have been surfacing for years, CEO Tim Cook has been careful about not confirming or denying any detail.
But he now makes rare comments on Apple’s effort in developing self-driving cars, which he referred to as “a core technology” for the company.
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After billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen made the case that Tesla is to automakers what Apple was to Nokia circa 2007, now Facebook millionaire turned venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya is making a very convincing case about Tesla looking like Apple during the pre-iPhone era.
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Tesla has often been compared to Apple for its disruptive nature, but Marc Andreessen, a billionaire venture capitalist and co-founder of Netscape, is taking the comparison a step further.
Andreessen believes that Tesla could have a similar impact on the auto industry as Apple had on the mobile market in the late 2000s.
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Chris Lattner isn’t the only high profile Apple executive who departed for Tesla over the past month, rather than sticking around to work on Titan. Electrek has learned that Matt Casebolt, a high-profile Senior Director of Design for Apple’s Mac lineup left the company last month for a role at Tesla as Sr. Director Engineering, Closures & Mechanisms. A job meant for a man named Casebolt…
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Today, Chris Lattner announced that he quit Apple after over a decade at the company where he developed the Swift programming language and worked on the Xcode and App store architecture.
Later in the day, Tesla confirmed that Lattner will be joining the automaker as Vice President of Autopilot Software.
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Apple’s car plans have long been kept under wrap by the company itself, but a new regulatory filing shows it publicly address the industry for the time. In a letter to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) uncovered by VentureBeat, Apple urged the government not to restrict testing of self-driving vehicles.
Jamie Carlson, a veteran firmware engineer and early member of the Tesla Autopilot team, made the headlines last year when he left Tesla to join Apple on ‘Special Projects’ at a time when we were just learning of the scale of the Cupertino company’s ambitions in the auto industry.
Electrek has now learned that Carlson left Apple earlier this month after just over a year at the company. He is staying in the electric vehicle industry by joining NextEV as Senior Director of Advanced Technologies.
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Faraday Future is working on its own maps engine technology for self-driving vehicles and this month hired a top expert from Apple to assist, Electrek has learned.
After reports in June that Apple had hired Sinisa Durekovic, a veteran software engineer that led development of satellite navigation systems used by BMW and others, now we learn that Durekovic this month joined electric vehicle startup Faraday Future.
Durekovic notably joins the team at Faraday Future working on a mapping engine for self-driving vehicles, according to sources. His move to Faraday Future comes after just one year at Apple.
Earlier this year, McLaren confirmed its development of new hybrid powertrains to be introduced in its vehicle lineup and that it was even considering building an all-electric version of the P1 or P1 GTR. Now McLaren will have a great opportunity to showcase its battery technology as it was announced that the British-based automaker won a contract to supply the battery pack for upcoming seasons of the Formula E championship.
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Lit Motors has been having difficulties finding the funds to bring its self-balancing electric motorcycle, the C-1, to market. CEO Daniel Kim said earlier this year that the company would need about $20 million to bring the vehicle to market and to satisfy the over 1,000 people who reserved what the company calls an ‘auto-balancing electric vehicle’ (AEV).
Now reports are coming out today claiming that the company recently became an acquisition target for important companies, including Apple, BMW, Audi, and a South Korean automaker.
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Update: McLaren has issued a statement in response, rejecting the report and denying any discussions with Apple about a potential investment.
The Financial Times is reporting that Apple is in talks to acquire McLaren, a supercar manufacturer to aids its own automobile efforts for the long-rumored Apple Car. The report says Apple is considering a full takeover acquisition of McLaren with talks spanning several months.
In McLaren, Apple may be interested in expertise and talent relating to car materials and “on-board computer systems”. The FT says an acquisition would be valued around a $1.5 billion dollars; McLaren currently records yearly losses.
With some high profile exceptions, it is generally accepted that Apple ships some of the most reliable high-tech products out there – at least if you believe the customer satisfaction reports. Things are far murkier for Tesla in that department, especially at its relatively early age.
Last year, Consumer Reports pulled their recommendation of the Tesla Model S citing “worse-than-average” reliability issues.
It became one of Tesla’s top priority over the last year and the automaker has made some significant improvements as evidenced by the declining replacement rates for major components, thanks in part to a growing reliability and test team.
Now Electrek has learned that Tesla has found a new leader for the team by hiring Apple’s Director of Reliability Engineering.
As we previously reported, Faraday Future is serious about developing its own self-driving and advanced driver assist systems (ADAS) as evidenced by the company hiring Bosch’s engineering director and leading automated driving expert, Jan Becker, to lead its own autonomous driving effort, as well as several other experts in the field.
Those experts are in demand since almost most major tech companies are building teams to develop their own autonomous driving technology.
Now Electrek has learned that Faraday Future hired away from Apple one of those experts in demand, self-driving and computer vision expert Bart Nabbe.
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Tesla recently made a key hire in digital retail and user experience. Electrek has learned that the automaker hired Chester Chipperfield, former Burberry Vice President of Digital and Interactive Design, earlier this month. Chipperfield, who more recently worked at Apple, confirmed the move on his LinkedIn profile.
He is taking over the role of ‘Global Creative Director’ at Tesla after leaving ‘Special Projects’, which is where Apple’s Titan car project (and other ventures) lives, at the Cupertino company earlier this month.
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Rich Heley was one of Tesla’s biggest hire and quickly rose in the executive ranks of the automaker. We broke the news of his hire back in 2013 when he was still leading Alloy Engineering at Apple. Now we learn that only 3 years later, the engineer, who until recently was Vice President of Product Technology at Tesla, is now leaving for Facebook.
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Yesterday, 9to5Mac.com reported that Apple Inc has founded a new, fully owned, subsidiary known as Apple Energy and that this entity had applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC regulates power companies) to be able to sell electricity and other power grid services to anyone that is not a public utility. Does this mean that you can now buy clean electricity made on the roof of the Apple Spaceship? Unless you are a large corporate electricity user within 10-30 miles, probably not. However if we step back and take a broader view, something interesting is happening – the likes of Apple, Google, Ikea and others including even Walmart are showing us a small piece of the future of much smarter electricity grid owned by many instead of the few.
After our attempt at explaining the 500% markup on Apple’s new solar array yesterday, further information has now confirmed that Apple’s new stores – starting in the brand new San Francisco location – will be utilizing a new walkable solar glass floor technology for electricity generation. According to a document on Onyx Solar’s website, Apple “has decided to commit itself to OnyxSolar’s designer photvoltaic technology for its new stores. The first of these is located in the heart of San Francisco, the company’s home town.”
Apple’s newest piece of retail art was revealed to shoppers in Union Square of San Francisco this month. As is Apple’s modus operandi these days they’re making sure to use clean energy to power the building. From the Apple press release, “The store is powered by 100 percent renewable energy, including power produced by photovoltaic panels integrated into the building’s roof.” BuildZoom – sees a 50kW Solar Electric system for an astounding $800,000! What exactly did Apple build?
If Apple is going to produce an electric vehicle like Tesla, then naturally Apple will want to provide customers with a way to recharge away from home without relying on infrastructure from third parties. Reuters now reports that Apple is showing interest in such charging stations as it’s talking to existing companies and hiring engineers with experience in building them.
Reuters this evening reports that Apple is investing $1 billion in Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing. In a statement, CEO Tim Cook explained that the investment will give Apple a chance to learn more about certain segments of the Chinese market, while it will also deliver a strong return.
An independent concept of the Apple Car from CarWow
One of the largest property companies in the San Francisco Bay Area has said during an investor call that Apple is seeking around 800,000 square feet of space in the area to expand its car project. The WSJ quotes Hudson Pacific Properties CEO Victor Coleman talking about rising demand for space for car R&D in the area.
The automotive industry is a capital-intensive industry. Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne knows it and that’s why he is open to work with Google or Apple:
“Google can buy every automaker out of petty cash. And Apple — they made a net profit of $24 billion in one quarter. This is nonsense. What are we defending? What?”
In a not yet released 2-hour interview with Automobile Mag‘s Georg Kache, Marchionne discusses the recent rumors of a FCA partnership with Google for self-driving cars and how the automaker wants to position itself in an industry disrupted by the likes of Apple, Google, Tesla and Uber.
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