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An Apple Car, an iCar or some sort of autonomous vehicle built by the Cupertino-based firm is a tech rumour that just keeps popping up.
Mysterious sightings here, patent filings related to cars there – every few weeks we see reports of Apple allegedly working on something to rival Tesla and Google’s own driverless car plans.
Now the latest report from The Guardian has suggested that Apple is sounding out locations to start testing vehicles in California, and that the fruits of such a project may not be too far away.
With these fresh reports in mind, we take a look back through some key pieces of evidence to see if the Apple Car is actually on the way.
Evidence: Starting with the latest reports, these are the documents seen by The Guardian that are said to indicate Apple has been in contact with several possible testing sites in California over using their grounds for its own autonomous cars.
According to the story, the documents show that Apple engineers met with officials from GoMentum Station, a 2,000-acre former naval base near San Francisco. You can see the site being used by other car manufacturers in the video above.
The site is being turned into a testing area for self-driving cars – and has already been used by Mercedes-Benz and Honda to experiment with connected car technologies.
Conclusion: Looking for testing arenas suggests that Apple may well have an early working prototype it wants to begin testing further. But the move could equally be that Apple is working on the technology to go into a smart car, as opposed to building one entirely from scratch.
Evidence: A series of stories have surfaced in the last year or so of Apple meeting with various car companies – though the details have never been disclosed. Indeed tales of such meetings actually go back as far as eight years, when Steve Jobs is said to have met with Volkswagen, and one Apple executive has since said that Jobs was toying with the idea of an “iCar”.
However, Apple has had a close relationship with car manufacturers for some time now thanks to its CarPlay technology. This enables drivers to connect their iPhone to their car and use dashboard screens to get an Apple interface and take advantage of features housed on their smartphone, including Maps and Music.
Conclusion: Given that Apple already has some in-car technology, the idea of Tim Cook meeting with the head of car firms isn’t too extraordinary. On the other hand, Apple’s current position makes a move into actual car manufacturing much easier in the first place.
Evidence: Several companies that tread the technology/car line, including Google and Tesla, as well as the likes of Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, have licences to test self-driving car technology on public roads. Apple does not.
However, this doesn’t mean Cook and co don’t have tests under way on the streets – one theory is that if Apple is or does partner with one of these firms, it could build its technology into their cars and run public tests that way.
Conclusion: Apple’s love of secrecy means that it’s entirely possible it would never look to run public tests before announcing the project. This theory can be backed up by its meetings over GoMentum – a site that would give it maximum privacy to test new car-based technology.
Apple Maps in Sandymount… Love the camera setting on car! pic.twitter.com/O2cQHIknIR
— Ivan Frantar (@Ivanico) August 8, 2015
Evidence: At first dismissed as variants on Google’s Street View cars, the increased number of sightings of mysterious vehicles with camera equipment mounted to them has got tongues wagging in California. Many have been confirmed as Apple Maps cars since, with some even bearing legends saying as much.
Though the Apple Car rumour enthusiasts have been quick to point out that any new autonomous software for cars would also require a mapping system. They just won’t let this idea go.
Conclusion: Both arguments have weight, with a better version of Apple Maps needed regardless of potential usage cases. But it’s handy for Apple that this is the case should it need to gather autonomous vehicle-related data quietly.
Evidence: Arguably the most telling clue that Apple is at the very least taking the car industry a lot more seriously can be seen in the firm’s hiring patterns of late. Engineers from both Tesla and Mercedes have been brought in, and Frank Fearon, one of the executives on Project Titan – said to be Apple’s car programme – was recruited from Lit Motors, a Silicon Valley start-up, and worked on an electric motorbike.
Mercedes-Benz’s head of research in Silicon Valley is another of the prominent appointments Apple has made in recent months.
Conclusion: Apple is now taking the car market seriously, and bringing in as many experts as it has suggests that CarPlay is not where its involvement in the sector will end.
It’s clear that something is going on between Apple and the car industry. It’s an arena that is becoming increasingly intriguing to the tech giants of Silicon Valley, and the movements of the iPhone maker are becoming increasingly difficult to hide.
Expect more from Apple on tech in cars, but actually building its own might still be some way off.
