When will Apple Cars meet you? I think this question must have been bothering Cook. As the head of the Internet, Apple launched a large-scale electric vehicle project code-named "Titan" as early as 2014 and began to enter the car-making track. Now 7 years have passed, during which the person in charge jumped ship and the project stagnated, but Apple did not give up the car-making project, but it has been difficult to produce, until today, Apple's prototype car has not been released.
Things seem to have changed recently. A few days ago, some media exposed that Apple's first electric vehicle "Apple Car" is expected to come out in September next year. According to media reports, in accordance with the iPhone preparation collection practice, Apple has recently submitted stocking requirements to Taiwan's auto parts and components factories such as Heda, Trade Union-KY, Heqin, and Tomita, and included related industry companies in the first batch of supply chains.
For the media exposure, some key supply chains in Taiwan Province, part of Apple, revealed that "Apple's first prototype car is currently under secret testing in California, and according to the requirements of the order, Apple cars are expected to be released in September."
In fact, the controversy surrounding Apple Cars has never stopped since the beginning of the project, but because Apple's progress on its intelligent networked cars has always been secret, the outside world only relies on predictions on the launch of Apple cars. It is understood that according to expectations, Apple will not launch Apple Car until at least 2023, and this time Apple was exposed to launch the Apple Car prototype car in advance, which can also be seen that Apple is indeed in a hurry.
Although some people are skeptical about the information exposed by this supplier, according to the Economic Daily, the auto parts suppliers currently included in Apple's supply chain are speeding up the pace of shipments, such as the new factory in The Tai Po Mei Park in Chiayi, which is accelerating the construction of AI intelligent production lines, and will add six new production lines to production in the second quarter of next year. All indications are that Apple cars are no longer "wolves coming" this time, but really want to meet with everyone.
Apple is in a hurry!
As for why Apple's car has been difficult to produce, I think the main reason is that Apple wants to copy Apple's mobile phone and launch a car that subverts the market. Although the car has been developed for more than 100 years, in terms of basic form, whether it is the traditional car inventor Mercedes-Benz or the new car-making force Tesla, Weilai or even Xiaomi Automobile, the new products they are currently launching are still not out of the category of "car". At present, most car companies are only making changes to achieve higher intelligence on the basis of existing electric vehicles, so that cars can achieve "intelligent interaction, automatic driving, remote control" and other operations.
But Apple cars have to do more than that. For Apple, just to become Tesla 2.0, then it is certainly not satisfied, just like replacing Nokia, so what it has always wanted to do is to subvert the entire car form. In fact, although Apple has not released a new car since its founding in 2014, it has been making a lot of technical reserves to subvert the car form. It is understood that since 2017, Apple has applied for nearly 100 car patents, which cover all aspects of automotive vehicles such as automatic driving, electric vehicles, in-car software, body, and safety assurance. In 2018, for example, Apple released a report titled "A Decade of Patents: Apple Demonstrates Incredible VR Experience Systems for the Next Generation of Self-Driving Cars." In the report, Apple applied for VR-related patents such as "enhanced virtual display technology", "immersive virtual display technology", "enhanced virtual instrument technology" and so on.
According to the information published in the above patent, with the blessing of VR technology, in addition to working, reading, and even meeting remotely while driving, people can also reduce motion sickness by adjusting the virtual environment.
It is worth mentioning that in May 2020, Apple also applied for a patent called "hidden user interface". Based on the patent, Apple cars can hide all the touch interfaces, and even use new technologies to make them "transparent", only when the user touches the interface, those "transparent materials" will light up and become operable touch screens. In addition, some hidden cameras in the car can also project vehicle information into the cab, so that the driver can understand the most detailed information at the first time.
In addition to these patents, Apple has also set its sights on seat belts in order to expand the use of seat belts. In Apple's vision, users can define different function buttons on the seat belt, adjust the volume of the vehicle by clicking and sliding, answering calls and even asking about Siri and other functions. At the same time, vibrations like lane shift problems can be transmitted to the user's chest through seat belts to improve driving safety.
Similar patents, Apple has filed a lot in the past few years. It can be seen that Apple has made a lot of preparations for subverting the car. Judging from the effects reflected in the many patents published by Apple, once these technologies are landed, they are also full of imagination, but these are not simple technologies that can be landed. Because the car is different from electronic products, it has extremely high requirements for safety and stability, so many of the technologies of Apple cars cannot be quickly landed, and I think this is also an important reason why Apple cars have been difficult to produce for so many years.
Does the fact that Apple was exposed to release the first prototype car in 2022 mean that after years of research and development, the relevant patented technology has the ability to land? Not necessarily. The main reason why Apple wanted to release the prototype in advance was that the market had changed dramatically.
In this year, Tesla, which Apple once had the opportunity to invest in, not only became the world's first car company to break through the trillion market value, but also launched the Model 3 and Model Y models that are currently selling well around the world. In addition, in the US market, As an emerging car company, Rivian was listed in November this year, not only received huge orders, but its market value also exceeded the 100 billion US dollar mark for a while.
In the Chinese market, the sales of "Wei Xiaoli", which has entered the new energy market for a long time, have broken through new highs, and Internet technology companies such as Baidu, 360 and Xiaomi, which have always claimed that they will not build cars, have also reneged on their promises to personally build cars. In addition to emerging car-making forces, traditional giants such as Toyota, Honda, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have all said all in the new energy track this year. It is worth mentioning that there are also technology companies such as Google, Intel and Huawei, and whether to build a car in the end is still unknown. In summary, the current new energy market is no longer Apple's barbaric growth period when it just went down to build a car in 2014, but a white-hot competition market, if Apple's new car is still jumping tickets in 2023 or 2024, although in the end it will not be unable to drink soup, but how much market share can be a question mark, which is aimed at making a difference in the new energy market, it is obviously not its original intention.
The reason why Apple released the prototype in advance this time is mainly because it does not want to miss the gradually crowded track of new energy. And even if Apple's prototype car has not yet met its requirements, with Apple's appeal in the market, as long as Apple's car products are not bad, they can get the pursuit of many consumers. After all, the wrong time, the market is gone, no matter how good the product is, it is better to build the car first, occupy a part of the market and then think about subverting things.
Who will do the OEM for Apple?
As the time for Apple's first prototype car to debut is approaching, who will be the OEM for Apple cars has become the answer that everyone wants to know most. In fact, Apple Auto has reported cooperation with many traditional car companies since the beginning of car manufacturing, but many traditional car companies have finally lost touch with Apple due to the initiative problem.
Since the beginning of this year, Hyundai Motor is the closest car company to Apple. As early as the beginning of the year, there were rumors that Hyundai Motor would oem for Apple Cars, but it was rejected by Hyundai Motors. As for the reason, like other traditional car companies, Hyundai motor is worried that Apple will dilute the self-worth of the Hyundai brand and make it a foundry. In mid-August, some media reported that Apple and Hyundai motor reached a $3.6 billion foundry agreement, but the news has not been confirmed so far. If there is no accident, Hyundai Auto OEM Apple Cars may not be finished.
In fact, even if other car companies intend to reach an OEM agreement with Apple, the purpose is not simple, obviously want to get the software and technology technology they want from Apple, while Apple wants to get the technology of vehicle manufacturing from traditional car companies. There is no doubt that everyone's purpose is not clear, they are all defending each other, so in the end, no traditional car company is willing to oem for Apple.
Since up to now no traditional car companies are willing to OEM for Apple Cars, only Foxconn has been cooperating with Apple for many years, and from the information exposed by suppliers before, there are already many auto parts suppliers in Taiwan Province that have obtained huge orders from Apple. All indications are that Foxconn's OEM Apple car is already a nail in the coffin.
The most important thing is that Foxconn and Apple have been working together for many years, and they have always played the role of foundry, loyalty has been tested for a long time, and they are familiar with each other's temperament. In addition, Foxconn is also ready for workmanship.
As early as the Hon Hai Technology Day event in 2020, Foxconn released the software and hardware open platform called MIH EV, which can span multiple levels, support front-drive, rear-drive and four-wheel drive models, and provide a rich powertrain. It is worth mentioning that the MIH open platform is defined as an open platform for electric vehicle software and hardware, which will allow automakers to design large parts of electric vehicles on the platform, which will then be made by Foxconn. At this year's Hon Hai Technology Day, Foxconn and Yulon Automobile Group jointly established a joint venture pure electric vehicle brand Foxtron, and released three models with different positioning based on the MIH platform: Model C, Model E and Model T. For Foxconn's action this time, it is also interpreted by the outside world as showing its strength to Apple.
According to the information on the MIH software and hardware platform released by Foxconn, although compared with traditional car companies, its electrification and intelligence have been relatively good improvements, but Foxconn has not had much experience in car manufacturing before, and whether the performance of the hastily launched MiH open platform is still outstanding as advertised remains to be examined. Furthermore, the level of electrification and intelligence of the MIH open platform is currently inferior to the latest platform taken out by "Wei Xiaoli". If Apple finally chooses Foxconn as a foundry, the final car may be far from Apple's "product that subverts the automotive market". But as mentioned earlier, Apple can't afford to wait, and the market won't necessarily wait for Apple all the time. At present, Apple's most urgent thing is to push the car out, as for who to oem, whether it can subvert the market, these can be left until the end to solve.
Summary: Since 2014, Apple has begun to build a car project, and now that 7 years have passed, Apple, which has not even released a prototype car, is actually quite disappointing. But who calls it an apple? As long as it is still insisting on the car-making project, I think everyone will look forward to the day when Apple Cars arrives.
Apple's idea of subverting cars is beautiful, but time is not waiting for anyone. As the time for Apple's car debut approaches, Apple will release a car without "Apple" flavor, will you still pursue it?