Allegedly the German automaker Volkswagen and American computer company Apple Inc. are working on a common project: “iCar,” the German-language magazine Capital reports.
Experts say a car with Apple products would garner much interest, especially among younger buyers, Sueddeutsche.de reports.
A Volkswagen spokesperson confirmed that VW chief Martin Winterkorn met a few days ago with Apple Boss Steve job in California for discussions relating to the project. The discussions are said to be in the early stages.
According to the report, there are to be models for Western Europe along with sales in the growing markets of China, India and Russia. In developing countries this “iCar” will be offered for 6500 euro, Sueddeutsche.de reports.
Full article (German to English via Google Translation) here.
Capital’s article (German to English via Google Translation) is here.
MacDailyNews Take: Best guess, peering through cloudy, ham-handed translation: iPod/iPhone vehicle integration of some sort.
Yikes – first AT&T, now Volkswagen? I’ll believe it when I see it.
so it begins… and here I am still wondering how the frak i’m suppose to find the cash for an iPhone!
jobswagen
I hope they don’t weld down the battery.
Apple doing something low end????
6500 Euros???
Must be an add on and not just for the car.
OMG! Glossy Windows!
I call bullshit.
but that’s just the gut reaction…
At least it will only have one button.
MW: ‘plans’
Volkspod
Podwagen
@ AL
There was a lot of talk when the Phaeton came out that Volkswagen might be moving out of the reach of most ‘volks’. I think an inexpensive car would be great if it could be done well, and VW could certainly do it if anyone could. The price of the entertainments system would be only a small part of that, and if Apple was involved, I’m sure it would take center stage on the feature list.
I’m sure it wouldn’t sell in the US, where we clearly need a 460 ci V8 and 18 inches of ground clearance to make it to the grocery store.
-c
VW should scrap this and focus on bringing the TDI back to the US across the product line.
If anyone can bring back the electric car, it would be ( and ought to be) Apple.
\”At least it will only have one button.\”
One button that matters. Just like most women.
@ ChrissyOne\’s Jilted Ex
And you couldn’t find it with a search party.
It only will run on Apple Branded Gasoline. Cost? $11.00 a gallon but it’s not “junky” gas. It’s better quality gas than the rest of the industry offers. Also required is a 3 year contract for oil changes every 3000 miles using Apple Branded Oil (only $20 a quart).
@ Shoeman
Still a lot cheaper than brakes for a Subaru.
@C1,
You are in top form today. Don’t stop.
Search party, BWAHAHA!
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Would Spotlight find it?
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MacDailyNews Take: Best guess, peering through cloudy, ham-handed translation: iPod/iPhone vehicle integration of some sort.
Um, yeah… like all those poor developing countries have millions of folks sitting around with their iPhone and iPod in-hand and just need a car to integrate them with. <rolls eyes>
@ @C1
My Mag-lite found it once.
I found it.
Once.
Cool.
Can’t wait to see how “multi-touch” works on the windshield.
Or maybe it’s got some cool scrollwheel?
Considering some American car companies are looking into using Windoze for their onboard computers, isn’t it time, long past due, that a car should run OSX?
apple: Robotics and Superconductivity, look into it. Gates already mentioned it during the All Things “D” love-in, how MS is starting into robotics.
Hasn’t there been rumors of Apple developing a high end Navigational touch-screen system for mercedes or something like that? Imagine the interface apple could create for complete nav/entertainment system. The Nav in my 06 Passat is powerful, but is WAY to hard to use. Huge possibilities for ease of use improvements in that neck of the woods… Go Apple!
I once asked Jonathan Ive how he ever chose a car… the design flaws he would see in them all must make him mad!!
Perhaps he and Jobsie are going to design a car for the rest of us now and turn that market on its head too!
Not impossible.
JesusWagen
Maybe it’ll have Widgets on its Dashboard and a MultiTouch transmission
my dream is that Apple will enter the car market eventually.
Cars are so unrevolutionary, we need steve to pull up in his iCar and get us all thinking
iThink therefore iAm
mw : students
Imagine a car that, when parked in your driveway or garage, connected securely to your iTunes library and synced your music, videos (for the kids and whatnot), and audiobooks to your mobile stereo. No iPod cables, no hacked-together and inconsistent UI, just seamless, joyful iTunes/carPod goodness. FM Tuner optional for $50. I can see it already…
“Must be an add on and not just for the car.”
I thought a Volkswagen was an add on.
I love you ChrissyOne!!
Move to Mexico!
I’ll build you a Palapa in Yalapa!
much better than a Condo in Redondo
(my wife thinks you are neat too!!)
I’d love to see Apple design a car, but not with Volkswagen. I could never buy another after the 1990 Golf I once owned. It had more miles behind a tow truck than it did actually driving. If I didn’t know better, I’d have guessed it was a Microsoft product.
This has to be an attempt at integrating more Apple products into the sutomobile, not designing an “Apple Car”.
Kind of like a suite of options that you can add-on.
Although…if Apple ever designed a line of cars, I would imagine something small, electric, snappy, and with matte windows for all of the gloss haters out there.
Women might only have one button, but there’s nothing like the reaction to pushing it just right!
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@ hotinplaya
I’m getting sick enough of the crappy weather in Seattle I just might…
@Alice…I’ve had the same thoughts! The auto industry needs more outside-the-box thinking.
Very short-sighted to think that this is simply about iPod/iPhone integration. VW does that now and doesn’t need to meet with Steve Jobs to implement iPod/iPhone integration. This would be much more about how the car overall looks, feels, operates, and perhaps even with OS X as the car’s operating system with touch-screen controls (most automotive navigation and other such systems have been horribly complex and user un-friendly).
Keep in mind also that this may simply be a concept car, and even that is likely 2 years away from seeing the light of day.
I would buy it…sight unseen.
How does Volkswagen (non-)design compare to Apple’s ? I must have slipped in another dimension…
Volkswagen is working on an inexpensive automobile. This is probably just a partnership to have plugs and whatnot in the auto for connecting Apple products. Apple will not be building a car.
“I’ll have what C1’s having…”
@ Billy Crystal’s Mom
Good one.
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Subaru! Subaru! Not VW! Please!
I think Apple should partner with Mercedes-Benz and integrate with their Smart Car. It’s about the same size as an iPhone.
http://smartusa.com/
VW4Life!
If I had to choose between giving up my mac and giving up my V-Dub, I don’t know which I’d choose. They’re both *that important.*
I absolutely LOVE the Volkswagen Beetle and actually have thought about buying one…But not now! I’ll just wait til these come out… Wonderful idea!!! Don’t let me down…
The ‘smart’ started as a joint project between Swatch and Mercedes. So if a watch company can partner on a car so can a consumer electronics company.
Meh, VW needs an injection of style. Something happened awhile ago and they haven’t been able to get back to their base. The New Beetle opened a new market for them and the Rabbit is a fun little car but their design problems go back to 1999-2000. The A4’s, IMHO, were way too big. The last decent Golf/GTI base was the A3. The Passat was just a rebadged Audi but the V6 Passat Wagon was a kick @ss ride and the W8 dripped with German engineering. And yet they screwed the pooch with the new designs. They look like Japanese cars. They should revisit the Scirocco or better yet the Corrado, perhaps the finest sports car they ever built. I’m down to my ’85 Westfalia and the wife’s ’00 Beetle. I miss my GTI sometimes, especially at the pump, but for the price of a new Rabbit (the way I wanted it) I got a new Tundra 4×4 (which comes in handy at the beach). There’s something wrong at VW…and I’m sure they don’t know it.
If it’s anything like my Y2K diesel Jetta, you’ll need a new iPod every 3 months because of the quarterly electrical meltdown.
Maybe Jobs could teach the Vdub electrical engineers a thing or two about how to do electronics properly, maybe then I’d buy another. Fun car, when it wasn’t at the stealership…
You can always love a VW, when you have a backup vehicle…