In December it was reported Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was designing a fully electric, self-driving car. At the time, the car allegedly aimed for a 2024 release and took it on Tesla Ing (NASDAQ: TSLA) in the race for a fully autonomous vehicle.
A new Bloomberg report says Apple will take five to seven years to launch an autonomous car, as the company is still in the early stages of development, with a fairly small team. The team of Apple engineers is developing propulsion systems and vehicle inside and out with the goal of eventually steering a self-driving vehicle. Apple also added more former Tesla employees to the team.
It looks like Apple may be taking a similar approach to Tesla. While previous rumors said Apple is mostly working on the self-driving systems, it looks like the company is now taking everything in-house and designing an entire vehicle around the self-driving concept.
Tesla followed a similar approach by designing its own vehicles, batteries, autonomous software, and even designing its own computer chips – a move Apple itself recently made toward Tesla.
Click here to check out Benzinga’s EV Hub for the latest news on electric vehicles
An important distinction is that Apple does not manufacture its own products. Apple will likely have to rely on manufacturing from outside companies, which could lead to profit margins. According to recent studies, Tesla’s profit margins are higher than 20% per vehicle.
© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.