The long road to an Apple car – The Verge

Apple brings back Bob Mansfield to reportedly run its car project

2016-07-25T11:29:50-04:00

Apple is going back to its old hardware boss to run the biggest hardware project it has ever attempted. Bob Mansfield, Apple's former hardware engineering chief, has taken over the Apple Car project, known internally as "Project Titan," according to The Wall Street Journal.

Mansfield stepped down from his day-to-day role on the executive team at Apple in 2013 after 14 years with the company, with reports at the time stating that he would work on special projects. But according to the Journal, Mansfield was rarely seen on campus until recently, when employees noticed that project managers for Project Titan were now reporting to Mansfield.

W …

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The Apple car’s ship date target has slipped to 2021, report claims

2016-07-21T13:26:40-04:00

The anticipated ship date for the rumored Apple car has been pushed back by a year to 2021, according to a report from The Information. Prior reports had claimed 2020 was the timeline for initial production.

There are so many rumors about the Apple car floating around at this point, it's easy to see how you might have wondered if it was launching this fall. But building a car from scratch is a fantastically difficult proposition, especially for a company as detail-obsessed as Apple. Where another carmaker might say "that's good enough, ship it," Apple could spend years refining the design (or decide to kill it altogether).

Though little is …

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Apple is researching how to charge electric cars

2016-05-25T12:13:15-04:00

A Chargepoint EV charging station

Apple is exploring methods to charge electric cars, according to Reuters, adding more credence to ongoing reports that Apple is developing an electric car. The report says Apple "appears to be laying the groundwork for the infrastructure" related to electric car operations.

Reuters says Apple has reached out to charging station companies to discuss their "underlying technology," and that Apple is focused on car development, not just implementing charging stations for its employees. The charging station companies are said to be wary of sharing too much information with a potential rival.

The report is short on concrete details - typical of …

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BMW and Daimler reportedly end talks with Apple over rumored car project

2016-04-20T15:48:05-04:00

Apple won't officially confirm that it's working on an electric, semi-autonomous car, but if the rumors are true it could need to partner with a seasoned car company to help it navigate the tricky and expensive world of automobile manufacturing. Today the list of potential partners just got a little shorter. BMW and Daimler have discontinued negotiations with Apple over the tech giant's rumored car, codenamed "Project Titan," according to German business publication Handelsblatt.

Disagreements over power and data

"Industry sources" tells Handelsblatt that the automakers left the negotiating table over disagreements related to - what else? - …

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The auto press is getting trolled by an analyst’s prediction of a $75,000 Apple Car

2016-03-15T10:40:33-04:00

If you're a longtime reader of The Verge, Engadget, or any of a dozen other publications that have been following consumer tech for the past few years, you're likely familiar with Gene Munster, a research analyst with investment bank Piper Jaffray. Hoo boy, are you ever familiar with him! Apple Car Fans has the "exclusive" on new comments from Munster about the Apple's automotive ambitions, and you're going to want to tune in, because he's got the scoop.

From Apple Car Fans:

"There will be a car that you can see and order in 2019-2020," said Munster. "We don't think it will probably be delivered until after that… maybe 2021." He added "an …

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The apple.car domain name appears to belong to Apple

2016-01-08T11:48:56-05:00

First discovered by MacRumors, Apple seems to have secured the apple.car, apple.cars, and apple.auto domains, all of which could obviously be related to the company's rumored entry into the car market. Though domain records can be falsified, it's unlikely here: the domain WHOIS entries make reference to MarkMonitor, an intermediary that protects brands from domain squatting.

Assuming they're genuine, there are many plausible explanations for the registrations that don't directly involve the development of an Apple car - Apple, as with many large companies, registers a wide variety of domains as a proactive measure against squatting and cust …

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Apple considered making a car in 2008, says Nest’s Tony Fadell

2015-11-04T08:38:07-05:00

In a video interview with Bloomberg, Nest founder Tony Fadell says that he and Steve Jobs had toyed with the idea of building a car back in 2008, when Fadell was a senior executive at Apple and the iPhone was gaining momentum. "We had a couple walks, and this was in 2008, about if we were to build a car, what would we build? What would a dashboard be? What would seats be? How would you fuel or power it?" he says.

It's unclear exactly how seriously Fadell and Jobs took the idea, but it would appear that it never progressed beyond a couple conversations. Of course, Jobs ultimately decided to punt on it - "At the end, it was always like, we're …

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An electric motorcycle company says it was killed off by Apple’s poaching

2015-10-19T11:33:03-04:00

It's an open secret that Apple has been aggressively poaching employees from a variety of industries as it ramps up to make a car, which feels more of an inevitability by the day. For a huge corporation, poaching isn't necessarily a death sentence - but for a startup, brain drain can spell the end. Take Mission Motors, for instance, a boutique manufacturer of electric motorcycles that was left "in the dust" by recruiting from Apple, Reuters reports, citing sources.

Mission, which laid out plans for bankruptcy last month, was focused on electric superbikes - not unlike the ones that run in the Isle of Man TT's electric race - and started see …

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Apple meets with California DMV to talk about self-driving cars, The Guardian reports

2015-09-18T09:11:58-04:00

A new report today from The Guardian says that Apple met with several officials at California's Department of Motor Vehicles last month to discuss self-driving cars. The DMV tells the paper that "the Apple meeting was to review [the] DMV's autonomous vehicle regulations," though the exact topics of discussion aren't known. Attendees included a member of Apple's senior legal team - logical, considering how deeply involved lawmaking will be in the future of autonomous driving - plus a handful of the DMV's self-driving advocates and its chief counsel.

It could still be years away

The report asserts that the existence of the meeting "suggests th …

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You won’t be driving an Apple Car any time soon

2015-08-15T14:27:49-04:00

The Guardian had a great scoop this week revealing that Apple is actively scouting locations for testing self-driving cars near its Cupertino headquarters. That would strongly suggest the company is moving forward with a rumored plan to make cars - possibly in search of continued growth as its traditional (and ridiculously successful) businesses level out.

While there's enough evidence in aggregate at this point to say confidently that Apple is working on cars in some substantial capacity, we still don't have the smoking gun there there'll be an actual Apple-branded car on the streets that you and I can buy directly from Apple, just as you …

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