Everybody is talking about it, but nobody has seen it. The iCar, or Project Titan, is a mystery that is secure inside the office of Apple boss Tim Cook. But will it be a proper functional car, or just a technology to sell to car manufacturers?
Among all the companies of the Bay area, tech giant Apple is the one which riles the automotive establishment the most – not just for its projects, real or alleged, but mostly for its impenetrable aura of secrecy. For months, the automotive industry has been shaken up by a tide of constant rumours that Cupertino is working on a car model – electric and autonomous – to launch before 2020. You could call it the iCar, or by its code name – ‘Titan.’ But from the Infinite Loop headquarters, there is not a word of either confirmation or denial.
BODY OF CLUES
So far, we’ve been talking about secret garages, vans with cameras and Lidar radar (their real function was discovered later on), even about secret factories in Ireland. At the end of July, the German magazine Manager announced that Apple was interested in the carbon shell of the BMW i3. And Apple CEO Tim Cook’s visit to Leipzig only seemed to confirm that report.
Then, in mid-August, The Guardian accessed documents that revealed Apple’s interest in conducting autonomous tests at Concord Naval Weapons Stations – a former military base located 50 kilometres from San Francisco. And, of course, Apple’s aggressive recruitment campaign – which has brought several automotive industry professionals to Cupertino – has only increased suspicion.
Titan could have been entrusted to a team of a thousand people lead by Steve Zadesky, former engineer at Ford who had already contributed to the birth of the iPod and iPhone. Johann Jungwirth, Mercedes-Benz tech guru who defected to Apple, is also in that group. As President and CEO of the R&D division of Mercedes-Benz North America, Jungwirth specialized in autonomous driving, electric powertrains and connected cars.
Amongst the newly hired, there are also some previous employees of the battery manufacturer, A123 Systems, and the former head of the quality division of FCA, Doug Betts. Automotive and energy storage company Tesla is also said to be among Apple’s targets for recruitment.
According to Tesla’s billionaire owner, Elon Musk, Apple is trying to seduce Tesla employees with salary hikes of up to 60% of their current pay packages and a 250,000-dollar bonus. It’s possible that Cupertino is planning to develop only electric or autonomous technology to supply to car manufacturers, as they did with Apple CarPlay, but with a 700 billion dollars market cap and 200 billion dollars in the bank, anything’s possible – even buying Tesla itself.
Producing a car is not like making phones. But no one is being nonchalant about the threat posed by Apple – certainly not Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne. After his recent trip to Silicon Valley, where he met both Cook and Musk, Marchionne said, “I don’t take lightly anything which Apple makes. It’s a company with great credibility and profitability higher than any car manufacturer.” With or without Titan, the car industry may already have been put on notice.
Artists keep trying to imagine what a car made by Apple would look like. The majority think of a slim futuristic design, almost like the mouse of a Mac. But, till now, this is just fantasy.
CarPlay, the system to integrate your iPhone with the on-board infotainment system of your car, is expected to be installed on 40 different models by the end of this year. It’ll compete with Android Auto by Google. Several car producers are already offering both options.
The rumours about an iCar revolve around an autonomous electric car to be launched by 2020, but so far there’s no conclusive proof that can confirm its development. Some believe it could well be a technology to supply to traditional car manufacturers rather than a vehicle itself.
The first suspect
Photographs of a black Dodge Caravan equipped with cameras, a GPS receiver and a Lidar laser, triggered rumours of an autonomous driving vehicle from Cupertino. Seen in Concord, and rented by Apple, the van, in fact, is being used to map the roads. Digital cartography will be another future business – after all, it’s no coincidence that, since 2013, Apple has acquired nine navigation and GPS services companies.
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