Tesla CEO Elon Musk spurs more Apple Car talk
Is Cupertino working on the fabled “iCar?” According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Apple is doing just that, but he doesn’t see the iPhone maker as a threat. In a recent interview with BBC, Musk called the Apple Car an “open secret” and a beneficial one, since it will expand the market for electric-powered vehicles.
While Apple has not formally announced that it is working on a vehicle, Musk says, “It’s pretty hard to hide something if you hire over a thousand engineers to do it.” Previously, Musk has dubbed Apple the “Tesla graveyard,” saying that Cupertino hires engineers the automaker fires. It’s definitely true that Cupertino has hired a number of employees, not only from Tesla, but also from the likes of Ford, Mercedes-Benz, and others.
The background of some of the hires also lends some credence to the thought that Apple is at least exploring the idea of its own car. In February 2015, 9to5Mac published a list of some of the employees coming over to Apple from the automobile sector, and points out that the majority of them come from a hardware background.
We’ve been talking about Apple’s Project Titan for a while now, and Cupertino keeps adding more fuel to the fire of speculation. The tech giant recently registered several automobile-related Internet domains, including apple.car and apple.auto. While these could be more related to CarPlay technology than an actual automobile, the new domains certainly seem geared toward something bigger than that.
Do I think that Apple is developing its own automobile? I will admit to being skeptical at first, but looking at the evidence, including the new domain name registrations, I’m becoming more convinced than ever that Cupertino is working on an electric vehicle. Not only that, Apple might be close to announcing the endeavor.
Image credit: International Business Times
