Apple said to be developing a hi-tech car
Apple is understood to be building a car in a revelation that will send shock waves through the market
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Apple is working on an electric car, according to people familiar with the matter, showing the consumer-electronics giant is open to stepping outside its lucrative focus on mobile devices.
Apple has put a few hundred employees to work on the secretive project, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.
Steve Zadesky, vice president of iPhone product design, is leading the effort, the person said. Apple often tests ideas that don’t get released, and the effort work may not lead to the company introducing an automobile, the person added.
The project is code-named Titan and the vehicle design resembles a minivan, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier Friday.
Some Apple executives have flown to Austria to meet with contract manufacturers of high-end cars, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
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Apple already has technology that may lend itself to an electric car and expertise managing a vast supply chain. The company has long researched battery technology for use in its iPhones, iPads and Macs. The mapping system it debuted in 2012 can be used for navigation.
Last year, Apple also introduced CarPlay, a software system that integrates iTunes, mapping, messaging and other applications for use by automakers.
Apple has batted around the idea of developing a car for years. Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of marketing, said in 2012 court testimony that executives discussed building a car even before it released the iPhone in 2007.
Mickey Drexler, an Apple board member and head of J Crew Group Inc., also said in 2012 that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had wanted to build a car.
A representative of Apple, based in Cupertino, California, declined to comment. The Financial Times has also reported that Apple is hiring auto experts to work at a new research lab.
Steve Jobs always wanted to build an Apple car, according to a member of the tech giant's board
Other Silicon Valley companies are also creating cars. Google Inc. is working on a self-driving vehicle. Tesla Motors Inc. makes electric cars and has hired at least 150 former Apple employees, more than from any other company, even carmakers.
“From a design philosophy, [Apple] is relatively closely aligned,” Elon Musk, Tesla’s co-founder and chief executive officer, recently told Bloomberg Businessweek in an interview.
Musk also said Apple has been trying to poach employees from his Palo Alto, California-based company, offering $250,000 signing bonuses and 60 percent salary increases.
“Apple tries very hard to recruit from Tesla,” he said. “But so far they’ve actually recruited very few people.”
Apple has hired from the auto industry over the years. Zadesky joined Apple 16 years ago from Ford Motor Co., where he was an engineer for three years. Apple’s chief financial officer, Luca Maestri, has worked at General Motors Co.
Over the past two years, Apple hired Haran Arasaratnam from Ford to work as a battery engineer, according to Arasaratnam’s LinkedIn profile. Apple also brought on Robert Gough in January to work on special projects. He’d spent the past four years at auto supplier Autoliv working on projects including the company’s radar division and developing active safety sensor technology, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The apple car is still yet to be released however; it has been in the process of designing for a matter of years now. The key stakeholders of this project are Steve Zadesky who is the vice president of apple, engineers and future customers. Due to the advancement of artificial intelligence, they are able to use this in the apple car. The car runs fully on electricity and has used some of Tesla’s engineers to help create the self-driving experience. Furthermore, apple has introduced a carplay mode, which is a software system that integrates iTunes, mapping, messaging and other applications for use by automakers. The area of application this covers is a mixture of business, home and leisure and environment.
ReplyDeleteThe advantages of this apple car are that it fully runs on electricity, which is promoting a greener environment and less carbon emissions. As well as this, they are introducing the fact that it is a self-driving car, which makes the vehicle a much safer car to drive and to minimalize accidents caused by human error. Lastly, everything in the car is synced to your apple device, which enables you to not have to look at your phone whilst driving. On the contrary, the car is going to be very expensive considering the fact that the technology involved is very advanced. Also, it’s not completely compatible with all mobile devices such as android phones meaning it has a limited customer group. Furthermore, since the car is fully synced with your phone, if the car gets stolen your personal data might be in jeopardy.
Some ethical issues that arise in the apple car is that the Carplay mode has a GPS mapping system installed which means that the car can easily be tracked and monitored. This is an invasion of privacy that inflicts upon the driver. Another ethical issue that is clear is that the self- driving car can’t make the same decisions as a human. If the car has a choice to save you or a group of people, who’s ethics does it follow? These ethical controversial issues cannot be made by artificially intelligence yet.
6/6 Covered all parts of the criteria in great depth. Well done!!!
ReplyDelete6/6 You did well, Good job
ReplyDelete6/6 You did well, Good job
ReplyDelete