“The so-called ‘Apple Car’ may not be a car after all, but rather an electric van, according to German site Manager Magazin,” Joe Rossignol reports for MacRumors. “The report, loosely translated below, claims Apple’s industrial design group has designed prototypes of the van with black and silver finishes:”
After that, the Apple Car could come in the form of an electric van. Apple’s engineers have designed specimens with black and silver paint, designed in the typical industrial design of the iPhone group. Apple also researches on its own batteries, electric motors, special seats and interior components. — em>Manager Magazin
“Last year, The New York Times reported that Apple had signed a deal to use Volkswagen vans as self-driving shuttles to transport employees around its various campuses and office buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area,” Rossignol reports. “It’s possible the vans could be designed by Apple and manufactured by Volkswagen.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Soccer moms, rejoice!
(Of course, this is likely but one facet of Apple’s plans for Project Titan.)
SEE ALSO:
Apple sharply increases testing of autonomous vehicles on public roads – February 13, 2019
Apple’s ‘Project Titan’ autonomous vehicle could be summoned, unlocked, and paid for via iPhone or Apple Watch – February 7, 2019
Apple hires designer Andrew Kim away from Tesla – December 17, 2018
Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple Car in 2023-2025 – October 17, 2018
Apple Car rumor roundup: Project Titan and what it means – September 1, 2018
Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple to launch revolutionary Apple Car within 5-7 years – August 15, 2018
Doug Field, former Tesla engineering chief, returns to Apple – August 10, 2018
Apple’s Project Titan is still a go, says analyst – June 28, 2018
Apple’s autonomous vehicle fleet grows to 62 vehicles in California – May 29, 2018
Apple’s autonomous vehicle project may be closer to fruition than it appears – May 25, 2018
Google buys 20,000 SUVs, Apple gets two dozen VW vans – May 24, 2018
Volkswagen looks to Apple for electric-car design guidance – February 16, 2018
Apple said to develop car operating system in Canada – October 25, 2016
Apple scales back ‘Project Titan,’ effort no longer includes building own car – October 17, 2016
Apple’s Bob Mansfield reboots Apple Car project, lays off several dozen employees – September 10, 2016
South Korea company’s never-before-revealed battery technology expected to be Apple Car’s ‘secret weapon’ – August 9, 2016
Apple Car: Everything we know about Apple’s mysterious ‘Project Titan’ – July 29, 2016
Apple Car: An operating system licensed to other auto-makers? – July 29, 2016
Apple hires founder of QNX with Apple Car project increasing focus on self-driving software – July 28, 2016
Apple taps Bob Mansfield to oversee Apple Car project – July 25, 2016
Hmmm, Soccer Mom’s steering with kids screaming or trusting the computer.. Hmmmmmm Which to feel better about.. Hmmmm I just don’t know…
deja vu all over again. A similar story was reported a few years back I seem to remember. Believe it when I see it tbh seems very un Apple like to me, I suspect a few 2s and 2s seen though frosted lenses adding up to a 5.
Let me get this right, millions of dollars and thousands of man hours and resources to produce a minivan, a vehicle for a dying segment…..well that’s just SHITASTIC!
You are not a family man, are you? Minivans are the most cost effective and efficient family transportation option available. Full size SUVs cost quite a bit more, deliver poorer gas mileage, and provide less cargo volume.
In addition to being practical for families, minivans also seem practical as the framework for an effective autonomous electric vehicle. There is plenty of room for a big battery while maintaining a large and functional interior. The minivan format also provides favorable mounting locations for lidar, radar, and optical sensors enabling 360 deg coverage and high/low perspectives.
IMHO the initial market should be B2B… courier, mail, delivery & distribution etc., no passengers, designated locales & routing… stage 2 would expand to local taxi, transport services etc. So mini van makes sense to me.
I don’t hate the minivan, I own one. But the facts are that the minivan segment is shrinking, getting replaced by crossovers. All of the traditional automakers know this. I would want to see Apple make wise design decisions to recoup it’s investment and not walk out with egg on their face if this report is true. If they design something that’s going to fail, it’s going to fail publicly. I don’t want that.
Stop the hate. A mini van would be the perfect vehicle for an on-demand fleet.
Exactly. I don’t think Apple’s going after Tesla with Project Titon. I think Apple is going after Uber and Lyft.
I miss the day when Apple was a leader not a follower.
What boggles the mind is how much the sillycon valley dorks are willing to burn in a vain attempt to put low paid cabbies out of work.
If a company with hundreds of billions of dollars to burn wanted to make the world a better place by automating something with tech, why not start with the most overpaid assholes on the planet? Investment bankers, attorneys, corporate executives, business consultants, insurance and pharma salespeople, real estate agents, …. so many easily replaced functionaries that do almost nothing requiring human creativity. Think about it. Cook could have been replaced by an iPod Shuffle years ago and nobody would have noticed. Fuckerberg could have been replaced by a vintage PacMan arcade game and the internet would be better for it.
Imagine the convenience of being able to charge your minivan and your Apple Watch wirelessly on the same platform.
Ok, time to bring reality.
Take your automatic driving car and have fun in San Francisco. The rest of us with WEATHER like SNOW will be glad to see our automatic driving / flying vehicles in 2079.
If Steve Jobs were around, he would tell you that you are living in the wrong place, lol
Yep. Lol