Apple Car - Rumors & Speculations

[Monster]

A majority share gives you control of the company. My speculation is that if Ron buys out many smaller shareholders, it would make it easier for him and Mansour to negotiate big investment from a bigger player.

I thought Ron and Mansour are having some disagreements?

I wouldn't be surprised if they need more working capital or even money to fund an engine factory. Honda isn't exactly delivering a Grand Prix winning engine, and that partnership ends at the end of next year, Mclaren, who is badly struggling for a title sponsor, will be in serious trouble.
//Speculation

Their road car division is doing alright but Ferrari still outsell them 7 to 1. As for the racing side...I blame Sam Michael, every team he has ever worked with suffered from almost irrecoverable performance decline. Yes Honda needs to up their game, they are doing alright this year but they still have a way to go, Alonso won't be hanging around forever and I hope he gets his 3rd title before he retires.

 

[klier]

Do you have any inside info to share, perhaps a little bit of info on the negotiation between BMW and Apple?

BMW and Mercedes: "LOL Apple, F'CK OFF WILL YA???

 

[Monster]

So now "Project Titan" has changed to a "autonomous vehicle platform" I wonder which car company, if any, will take up Apple's offer?

Apple’s ‘Project Titan’ pivots to self-driving architecture, given 2017 deadline
The scope of Apple’s ‘Project Titan’ has reportedly been scaled back from an industry changing self-driving electric car to an autonomous vehicle platform, which will be sold to other car makers.

A detailed new report from Bloomberg details the recent goings on at Apple’s top secret ‘Project Titan’, including upheaval in the management ranks and a mass exodus of engineers.

An unidentified source has told the business publication that hundreds of employees assigned to the project have either been let go, reallocated elsewhere in the company, or walked. Another source says that head count has been kept roughly the same thanks to new members joining from elsewhere within Apple.


Originally conceived in 2014 as a revolutionary electric vehicle with either a semi-autonomous or fully autonomous driving system, the project has now been scaled back to a self-driving car platform that will be on-sold or licensed out.

Project leaders have reportedly been given a deadline of the end of 2017 to prove the architecture’s viability, and to outline a case for further progress.

Battles about the project’s direction — whether it should be a complete car or just a platform — began surfacing in 2015, and came to the fore this year.

Steve Zadesky, formerly an engineer at Ford, headed up ‘Project Titan’ until early 2016 when he was effectively replaced by Bob Mansfield, who was brought out of semi-retirement and was involved in the development of the first-generation iPad.

The issues reportedly encountered by Apple during the time when ‘Project Titan’ was envisioned as a challenger to theTesla Model S included the complex regulatory environment, and difficulties in accepting the low margin nature of the automobile market.

Another key problem was the automotive supply chain. Bloomberg believes that suppliers were unwilling to commit to delivering low quantities of highly specialised parts to Apple. Unlike their counterparts in the tech world, they couldn’t be bullied into lowering costs or offering exclusive access.

http://www.caradvice.com.au/490571/apples-project-titan-pivots-to-self-driving-architecture-given-2017-deadline-report/

 

[chonkoa]

It won't be long before more car companies trim their bets on this project.

 

[Cashmere]

Apple reportedly partnering with Volkswagen to make self-driving employee shuttles
After failing to secure deals with BMW and Mercedes


Apple’s once-ambitious self-driving car project has narrowed even further. The New York Times now reports that the company’s negotiations with German automakers, including BMW and Mercedes, to develop an all-electric self-driving car have fallen through, after both companies refused to let Apple have control over the design of the vehicle and the data it produces. Now, Apple is partnering with Volkswagen to turn existing T6 Transporter vans into self-driving shuttles for Apple employees, the report says.

We’ve known since last year that Apple’s car division, codenamed Project Titan and once aimed at making both the hardware and software for a new autonomous vehicle, had shifted gears to focus in the near-term on a shuttle service known as PAIL, for Palo Alto to Infinite Loop. (Infinite Loop is the name of the street the company’s previous main campus was located on, prior to the spaceship-shaped Apple Park opened last year.) Now we know Volkswagen is the company providing Apple with the actual vehicles.

The New York Times report, however, says that the entire Apple car team seems to be consumed with getting this shuttle service off the ground, and that there are no concrete plans for what comes after. That would suggest that Apple’s ambitions with Project Titan have been even more severely diminished. The Times reports that hundreds of people have left the division in the few years since it was expanded to more than 1,000 employees.

Despite that, Apple’s prototype self-driving cars can be spotted driving around Palo Alto. The company also has more autonomous vehicles — the company commands a fleet of Lexus RX450h SUVs for testing purposes — registered with the California Department of Motor Vehicles than both Uber and Alphabet-owned Waymo. So it may be too early to count Apple out of the self-driving game, especially when we know so little of its future plans. Last August, CEO Tim Cook suggested his company’s work in autonomous systems could be used “in a variety of ways” and in “in many different areas,” suggesting Apple may have lofty plans in the robotics market or in some other application of computer vision and artificial intelligence.

Link: Apple reportedly partnering with Volkswagen to make self-driving employee shuttles

 

[Centurion]

Good for Mercedes and BMW. Apple Car Play, their first foray into the automotive world.

-To change app you have to go back to a home screen with a grid of buttons.

-Siri is waaaaaaaaaay behind Google Assist.

-Car play requires support my the car while Android auto is an app that can also be used on a phone screen. Android Auto can set to launch automatically anytime to connect to your car. Thus you can use Android Auto whether your car supports it or not.

-Google Maps is better is many different way.

 

[Cashmere]

Former Apple Employee Charged With Theft of Trade Secrets Related to Autonomous Car Project

Link: Former Apple Employee Charged With Theft of Trade Secrets Related to Autonomous Car Project


Now we know Apple has ~ 5,000 employees working on Project Titan. Apple is very secretive about its self driving car plans but the employee count working on this project shows that it is a project of great significance to Apple.

 

[Centurion]

Former Apple Employee Charged With Theft of Trade Secrets Related to Autonomous Car Project

Link: Former Apple Employee Charged With Theft of Trade Secrets Related to Autonomous Car Project


Now we know Apple has ~ 5,000 employees working on Project Titan. Apple is very secretive about its self driving car plans but the employee count working on this project shows that it is a project of great significance to Apple.

What a crazy bloke. He could have been more discrete about building up knowledge before leaving.