While Apple's Project Titan reportedly shifted gear and is currently focused on autonomous driving software rather than the actual car hardware, that doesn't necessarily mean that the Cupertino technology giant doesn't have some big plans in that space.
Tesla is building its massive Gigafactory in order to reduce the production cost for their electric vehicle battery by thirty percent and now Apple is rumored to be secretly working on automotive battery research and development though no specific details were provided.
According to a report Thursday by Shanghai-based news outlet Yicai Global, Apple partnered with Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL) on the project.
The publication speculates that the move could indicate that Apple’s car project involves not only autonomous driving software but also hardware. The two companies are working together on “a scheme”, based on a confidentiality agreement, in the field of batteries.
“If Apple is working with CATL on a battery, the possibility that Apple will continue to make cars cannot be ruled out as one of the core components of self-driving electric cars is the battery,” CCID Consulting’s New Energy Director Wu Hui told the outlet.
Another, less likely explanation could be that Apple may be planning to sell batteries of its own to makers of electric vehicles, or directly to consumers to power their homes. Because no specific details were provided, we can even speculate that these batteries could be used in Apple's data center, stores and other corporate facilities.
Here's drone flyover of Tesla's Gigafactory site, courtesy of Duncan Sinfield.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkbA2FnQSpk
Founded in 2011, CATL is a spinoff of Amperex Technology Limited.
In 2012, a report claimed that Apple dropped Samsung and switched to Amperex for iPad and MacBook batteries. However, Amperex is nowhere to be found on the February 2017 list of Apple suppliers, and neither is its parent company.
Amperex produced a replacement battery for Samsung's ill-fated Note 7, but it too was plagued by a manufacturing issue that could cause it to catch fire due to the welding defect.
Rendering: Tesla's Gigafactory 1 outside Sparks, Nevada.
Project Titan is officially about autonomous driving software, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook in an interview with Bloomberg Television at the Worldwide Developers Conference.
The video was posted today, marking the company's public admission regarding true purpose of the secretive project. Laying out exactly what Apple is up to in the automotive market, Cook said their current efforts are concentrated on self-driving technology.
Here's what he said (edited for clarity):
We’re focusing on autonomous systems. It’s a core technology that we view as very important and probably one of the most difficult AI projects to work on. There is a major disruption looming there. You’ve got kind of three vectors of change happening generally in the same time frame. If you've driven an electric car, it's actually a marvelous experience.
The “three vectors” Cook refers to are as follows:
Self-driving technology Electric vehicles Ride-hailingAs you may have suspected, he ultimately declined to say whether or not Apple might eventually manufacture its own car. “We’ll see where it takes us,” Cook added.
“We’re not really saying from a product point of view what we will do.”
Watch the full video below.
Ever since rumors began swirling that Project Titan involves a self-driving vehicle, there's been no shortage of reports analyzing whether or not Apple should build its own car.
In October of last year, Bloomberg reported that Project Titan had refocused from building an actual vehicle to developing autonomous self-driving software.
Whether or not the fruits of Apple's labor will ever see the light of day in CarPlay, or perhaps as a standalone new app for autonomous driving, remains to be seen.
After obtaining a permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles two weeks ago, first real-world images of the vehicle Apple's using to test its rumored autonomous driving software have now surfaced. Bloomberg was able to obtain photos of a sensor-laden white Lexus R450h SUV as it emerged from an Apple facility.
The car was outfitted with two radars, a bunch of cameras and a Velodyne 64-channel LiDAR, a detection system that works on the principle of radar but uses light from a laser.
Apple has hired several expets from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), including three engineers who worked at the space organization's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They, along with other engineers, have been tasked with working on Apple's rumored augmented reality projects and self-driving software initiatives.
According to the latest articles from Bloomberg, Dow Jones Newswire and Business Insider, a rare bureaucratic mistake has revealed Apple’s secret team of NASA veterans and experts holding PhDs in robotics and other related fields. They were apparently recruited for Project Titan, Apple's self-driving car project, and augmented reality, another not-so-secret Apple initiative.
Apple was added to the list of 29 other companies, including Tesla, Google, Ford and Mercedes, that are testing or planning to test self-driving vehicles in the state of California, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles's (DMV) website Friday.
The permit allows Apple to test vehicles in autonomous mode on public roads.
It's unclear if Apple sought to obtain a permit because it wanted to test-drive its own autonomous vehicles or if the company was simply looking to experiment with the rumored autonomous driving features in a future CarPlay version.
Apple in November penned a letter to the NHTSA (U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) regarding autonomous vehicle polices and other concerns. VentureBeat unearthed the letter, which was signed by Apple VP of Product Integrity and former Ford safety executive Steve Kenner.
Back in September, The Financial Times, The New York Times and Bloomberg ran reports that Apple was considering either a full takeover bid or at least a large investment in the British supercar maker McLaren Automotive. A potential acquisition was valued at between $1.3 billion and $1.9 billion though McLaren later said it was “not in discussion with Apple in respect of any potential investment.”
Saturday, McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt confirmed in an interview with Reuters that his company did hold talks with Apple after all, but said the discussions never progressed towards a definitive proposition.
KGI Securities' Ming-Chi Kuo issued a new research note to investors on Wednesday regarding his vision for Apple's augmented reality efforts. In the letter, the noted analyst says that we likely won't see these efforts for 1-2 years, but when we do they will redefine Apple's current products and open up new categories.
Apple has dozens of software engineers in Canada building a car operating system, reports Bloomberg. The engineers are said to be working at an office in Kanata, close to the offices of BlackBerry's QNX, where many of them were previously employed.
Apple is rethinking what it plans to do about self-driving cars, reports The New York Times. Citing sources familiar with the project, the outlet said on Friday that the company has shuttered parts of its self-driving car project and laid off dozens of employees.
These moves are the latest signs of trouble involving Apple's oft-rumored initiative, codenamed Project Titan. In July it was reported that the team, under new leader Bob Mansfield, had shifted its focus from building a vehicle to an autonomous driving system.
Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster had been infamously predicting an Apple-branded HDTV set for years before eventually giving up on that dream. Last we heard from him was when he called for an S-upgrade to the Apple Watch in February 2016 (he may have gotten that one right; the timing, not so much).
He's back now with some interesting thoughts (via AppleWorldToday) on Apple's rumored electric vehicle and assumed virtual reality headset hardware.