A new report from Bloomberg offers new details today about Apple’s continued efforts to build a self-driving electric car. According to the report, Apple has a ‘small team’ working on Apple Car, but a release is likely to be at least five to seven years away. The Apple Car team also added even more former Tesla drivers, the report said.
The report explains:
The Cupertino, California-based technology giant has a small team of hardware engineers who design propulsion systems, vehicle interiors and external auto parts, with the goal of eventually steering a vehicle. This is a more ambitious goal than in previous years, when the project mostly focused on creating an underlying self-management system. The company also added more former Tesla Inc. drivers to the project.
Work on the Apple Car project has been delayed this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the report said. Currently, ‘the majority of the team is currently or working a limited amount of time at home or in the office’ due to the pandemic. This has led to Apple’s work on the project slowing down.
Engineers working on the project believe a product could be released “in five to seven years if Apple continues with its plans.” Eventually, however, it is said that the car is by no means a production stage and that ‘timelines may change’.
Apple Car and Tesla
Bloomberg also has details on recent appointments for the Apple Car team, including former Tesla drivers. Jonathan Sive, formerly a vehicle engineer for Tesla, BMW and Waymo, serves as senior manager in the Apple Car team. And Apple hired former Tesla vice president Stuart Bowers in late 2020.
According to the report, Apple’s electric car team is ‘filled with dozens’ of former Tesla hardware and software engineers. Apple currently has several hundred engineers working on the project.
Apple also recently appointed Jonathan Sive, a vehicle engineer at BMW AG, Waymo, of Tesla and Alphabet Inc., as senior manager of the car project. In 2019, Apple tapped on Michael Schwekutsch, Tesla’s former vice president in charge of propulsion systems, adding to a growing list of former Tesla employees working on the vehicle effort.
Late in 2020, Apple also appointed another former Tesla vice president, Stuart Bowers, according to a person familiar with the move. He led Tesla’s self-management technology team until mid-2019 and was a CEO at venture capital firm Greylock Partners until July, according to his LinkedIn profile.
In addition, Michael Schwekutsch joined Apple’s engineering in 2019 after previously serving as Tesla’s director of engineering. Apple has made the habit of hiring former Tesla employees for their self-driving car team. This led to Tesla CEO Elon Musk calling Apple the “Tesla Cemetery”.
Musk also recently revealed that he is trying to sell Tesla to Apple for a fraction of its current value. Musk claims he made direct contact with Apple CEO Tim Cook, but Cook was not interested in a meeting.
Finally, the report states that Apple has a small hardware team engaged in ‘vehicle dynamics, propulsion, safety mechanics and battery technology’. The aim is to ‘re-imagine the interior of a car for a future in which people drive passively rather than drive.’ Apple’s chip team is also working on processors to power the car’s self-driving system.
Today’s report from Bloomberg follows earlier reports from Reuters, which said that Apple Car could go into production by 2024. However, Apple’s trusted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the launch of Apple Car could be in 2028 or later, depending on a variety of factors.
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