Rumors about Apple Car have become more frequent over the past few weeks, and there seems to be more to come. The edge reported today that Apple last year held talks with Canoo, a company that focuses on electric vehicles and related technologies, to promote the development of the long-rumored car by Apple.
According to the report, both companies discussed the possibility of investments and even an acquisition by Apple in the first half of 2020. The edge that Apple is widely interested in Canoo’s scalable electric vehicle platform, called a ‘skateboard’.
It consists of the integration of more electronics of the car through steer-by-wire technology, which allows increased flexibility in the design of the cabin. Apple was looking to acquire Canoo, but the company only wanted to work with the Cupertino company by taking investments.
Both companies halted negotiations after Canoo entered the NASDAQ stock exchange in December. Canoo CEO Tony Aquila declined to discuss the startup strategies and negotiations in a statement to The Verge as well as Apple. Interestingly, Hyundai has previously worked with Canoo to build their electric vehicles – which the same rumors claim the carmaker will do with Apple.
Although the acquisition of Canoo was not successful, Apple bought Drive.ai in 2019 – a company that develops autonomous cars. Apple did not discuss the reasons for the acquisition, but the company confirmed that Drive.ai engineers will be working on engineering and product design.
We still do not know when the Apple Car will be announced Bloomberg suggests that it is 5 to 7 years away, but these rumors confirm that Apple is still working on the project of its own electric car.
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