Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Apple has reportedly hired hundreds of employees, including some formerly employed by Tesla, to work on the development of an electric car as part of a project code-named Titan, anonymous sources told the Wall Street Journal on Friday.
The WSJ’s report, which follows months of rumors that the Cupertino, California-based iPhone and iPad maker was secretly working on such a project, said that the initial design of the vehicle would resemble a minivan. It was printed just hours after a Financial Times article revealed that Apple was hiring automotive experts for a top-secret project.
Of course, as the Journal points out, there is no guarantee that an Apple-branded electric vehicle will ever hit the roads. The company is known for investigating different types of technology and various potential products that never make it beyond the prototype stage. Also, even if they are serious, it would be years before the car is finished and passes safety certifications.
However, the size of the project team and the senior executives rumored to be involved suggest that this is a serious effort on the company’s part, the sources said. Top Apple brass have flown to Austria for meetings with auto parts supplier Magna Steyr, a division of Magna International that focuses on high-end vehicles. The company declined the Journal’s request for comment.
Bringing in the big guns
Mashable added that Apple has apparently tapped executive and former Ford Motor Company engineer Steve Zadesky to head up the group, and that he has been overseeing the project for nearly a year. They have also hired Johann Jungwirth, former head of R&D at Mercedes Benz North America, and several members of the team previous worked with European automakers. Forty-six team members are former Tesla employees.
The Journal said that an unnamed source familiar with Apple’s body of work told them that the company was looking to put its imprint on the electric vehicle market in much the same way that they did with the iPhone on the smartphone market. While the company has thus far managed to keep its growth from slowing, it may be under pressure to deliver the next big thing.
One added bonus to the project, one source told the WSJ, is that many Apple employees who were planning to leave the company have decided to stay and work on the new project instead. The experimental new car has been a good break from the pressures of annually churning out new versions of Apple’s existing product line, that individual explained.
The Verge also points out that the project could also turn out to be a platform for testing other types of products and technology that the company is working on, citing its CarPlay service as an example. CarPlay is a service that allows drivers to access Apple services such as Siri and iTunes music through dashboard information systems, and more than two dozen car makers have said that they plan to use it, according to reports.
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