14 DAY TRIAL // High profile figures in Silicon Valley consider it a given that Apple is working on a car, despite many still regarding this as utterly farfetched. Yet we have every indication that Apple is about to switch lanes (get it?), and “give Tesla a run for its money,” as one source recently said.
Intrigued by the rumor, Bryan Chaffin of The Mac Observer decided to poll his own connections and see how much truth there is behind these discussions. As it turns out, there’s an 80% probability that Apple’s iCar is indeed getting done, and those Tesla hires we’ve been hearing about are not a joke either.
“I should add that when I asked one of my sources flat out to put a percentage chance on Apple working on an actual car—rather than some kind of car-related technology—I was told, ‘80 percent.’ When coupled with everything I've learned since, I'm personally closer to 100 percent.”
Apple and Tesla fighting over engineering prowess
You’d be naive to think Apple doesn’t want Tesla’s engineering talent, and vice versa. Apple has tremendous influence in the software scene while Tesla commands the EV sector. EVs are heavily dependent on software, which explains why Elon Musk wants the best software engineers he can get his hands on - namely, from Apple.
Apple has been spotted driving around in camera-equipped cars. We think they’re cameras, but maybe they’re more than that. Maybe they’re sensors that analyze various aspects of the driving experience, feed this data to a central processing unit, and make the car respond in accordance with the stimuli. A “smart-car,” if you will.
Why not, right? Apple started out as a computer company, and now it makes most of its money with phones and the iTunes Store. Soon, the Apple Watch will be added to the company’s pedigree. Why is an Apple Car more farfetched than an Apple Watch? The answer: it isn’t.