Apple is not a tech company that likes to be left behind by its peers and as the market for electric cars continues to grow, it has not been revealed that the company already has its secret project in place to roll out electric cars by 2021. It is called Project Titan.
According to a report in the website, Fool.Com "Apple has revealed nothing about the details of Project Titan, or even that it exists, but that hasn't stopped the leaks. The first to break most of the news about Apple's car project was The Wall Street Journal. The paper first said the vehicle was expected to debut in 2019, but more recent detailsfrom The Information (paywalled) now points to a 2021 release. The vehicle is widely believed to be electric and a recent rumor says that a South Korean company is making cylindrical lithium-ion batteries with hollowed-out centers. The design is expected to make them lighter and protect against overheating, according to South Korean ETNews.
Apple has already been in talks with companies about building charging stations and has hired its own battery-charging experts away from BMW and Google as well, according toReuters. Earlier rumors suggested the car may be fully driverless, but it's much more likely that the Apple Car will have some level of self-driving capability (like Tesla's Model S and X, orHonda's inexpensive, semi-autonomous Civic). "
The report also revealed key information about the people in charge of the project, "Apple's car project has gone through at least a handful of leaders since its inception (or so we think). There's been speculation that Apple's Chief Designer Jony Ives was heading up most of the car project, but it's also been reported that Steve Zadesky, formerly a Fordengineer that helped oversee iPod and iPhone teams, was heading up Project Titan. The latest buzz is that Apple has actually brought back Bob Mansfield to oversee its car project. Mansfield was a longtime Apple executive who backed off of daily involvement with the company several years ago, and previously headed up hardware engineering for the iPad, iMac and MacBook Air.
Apple reportedly has about 1,000 people working on the project, and was even able to snag Tesla's VP of Vehicle Engineering, Chris Porritt. He was reportedly in charge of the project after Zadesky left, but is likely working under Mansfield now. Apple also hired a key deep learning expert, Jonathan Cohen, away from NVIDIA."
