TwinIon Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 Last year we heard reporting that Apple's electric car ambitions had been scaled back dramatically from building their own car from scratch to simply providing driverless car software. Large parts of the so-called project Titan team were let go, and many assumed Apple was out of the race. Now we have a new report from Reuters that says Apple is indeed still moving ahead with their electric car ambitions. They're unsure if Apple will contract with partners to build a whole car, or if they'll be partnering with existing automakers, but besides self-driving car software, the key item in this new report is that Apple has some "breakthrough" battery tech that will both dramatically decrease cost and increase the range. The report also says Apple is targeting a 2024 date for this new car. At this point, I think it's fair to take these kinds of speculation with a pretty hearty dose of skepticism, but it's still fun to speculate as to what Apple could mean to electric and self-driving cars, should they enter the market in any real capacity. One element that comes to my mind that may have been in the background before is that Apple is now much more capable of a chip builder than they were in 2014. Yes, they were a few generations deep into the A-series when Titan started up, but now they've expanded their capabilities immensely, with a heavy focus on compute, vision, and AI, all things you'd need in a self-driving car. I'm not sure how aware people are, but many (most?) car software platforms are built on QNX, a blackberry subsidiary that works, but I wouldn't call them a gold standard of innovation. Even if Apple's ambitions get scaled back, it's not hard to imagine Apple's hardware and software taking significant market share from both QNX and self driving providers at the same time. As far as breakthrough battery tech, that's my ultimate "I'll believe it when I see it." If they do have something cheap and good, then I'll be first in line to praise them for it, but I feel like it's a line we've heard before, and as far as I know Apple hasn't been a leader in battery tech. We've seen a lot of scaled back ambitions from the self-driving car sector. Uber basically gave up, Waymo has been moving very slowly, established car makers have been much more quiet about their ambitions in the last year or so. If Apple does get into the mix, it could spice things back up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spork3245 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 It would definitely be the better move for Apple to partner with existing automakers, IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 Tesla is the Apple of carmakers doe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 25 minutes ago, Jason said: Tesla is the Apple of carmakers doe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 lol Apple's market value grows by $102 billion after report says the company aims to produce electric cars by 2024 | Markets Insider MARKETS.BUSINESSINSIDER.COM The tech giant is reportedly developing battery innovations that improve vehicle safety, packaging, and range. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperSpreader Posted December 26, 2020 Share Posted December 26, 2020 iDon'tWant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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