It’s very possible that we may be seeing “Apple Cars” driving our streets in the very near future.
Just months after they stuck their soon-to-be-trillion-dollar hat into the mobile payment processing niche, Apple has stated their intention to build the world’s best electric car, with a tentative release date set for sometime in 2020 (after they’ve hammered out the R&D).
“Project Titan” as the project is being dubbed, currently has around 200 employees working on it. At least a few of those “newly-acquired” employees have sparked a potential lawsuit between Apple and A123 Systems (a company that specializes in producing large lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles). Apple is also poaching employees from Ford Motor Company and General Motors. I’m sure it won’t be long before they reach inside Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors, to get some engineers from them too.
There’s tons of speculation, including some experts who believe there’s no way this project takes off, while others believe it to be very possible.
Apple can and will do whatever they want, crossing into any industry they please. I’m not so sure I agree with Gutierrez’s thinking that Apple needs to make their car cheap to give it mass-market appeal. People buying electric cars understand that the value’s in the fuel cost savings and that electrics are essentially the lesser of two evils with respect to their impact on the environment and the climate change fossil fuels may be causing (I say “may” because there’s still plenty of scientific debate on this subject too).
Share your thoughts — on the project, whether they can acquire Tesla, how “Project Titan” will fare against the “Google Car” (hey, a self-driving electric isn’t outside the realm of possibilities), Apple’s quest for world domination, etc.
Would you value an electric from Apple the same as you would your $800 iPhone6 or $3000 iMac?
http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/20/technology/apple-car/
http://www.macrumors.com/roundup/apple-car/
http://www.imore.com/apples-market-capitalization-has-doubled-tim-cook-became-ceo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_conspiracy_theory
