Apple met in early 2020 with the launch of Canoo for electric vehicles in California as part of its efforts to advance the development of its own Apple Car project.
The people familiar with the matter, the meetings took place in the first half of 2020 The edge.
Apple was reportedly initially pulled by Canoo’s scalable electric vehicle platform. Compared to other car manufacturers and startups, the platform integrates more of the electronics of a vehicle and provides greater flexibility in the design of the cabin. Canoo, in turn, was interested in an investment from Apple. However, the talks fell apart and Canoo was announced in 2020 by merging with a blank check fund.
The news of Apple’s interest in Canoo comes amid reports that the Cupertino technology giant is negotiating with Hyundai to manufacture an autonomous electric vehicle by 2024.
In February 2020, Hyundai and Canoo announced plans to develop electric vehicles together. The announcement and any possible partnership between the two auto companies does not appear to be related to Apple’s involvement in either of the two.
Apple’s work on autonomous vehicle systems has been a poor secret for years. The company’s vehicle division, internally called Project Titan, has been developing self-driving car technology since at least 2014. Originally focusing on the development of an actual production vehicle, the purpose of the project was shifted to the creation of the underlying autonomous systems of a self-driving car. In recent years, it seems that Apple has stepped back to create a real ‘Apple Car’.
Rumors and speculations surrounding an Apple electric vehicle surfaced again in December 2020 when Reuters reports that by 2024 the company could debut a vehicle with a ‘next level’ battery technology.
The very accurate analyst of TF Securities, Ming-Chi Kuo, suggested that the ‘Apple Car’ will only arrive in early 2025. At least one report claims that the project is so immature that it will take five to seven years before an “Apple Car” comes into its own.