Apple Car, which has been shouting for several years, this time it is one step closer to the coolness?
Before Guozi arrived at the company today, he had already seen a blockbuster news on the subway: Apple's self-driving car team had another manager to jump ship Meta. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Joe Bass, head of software engineering management for Apple's automotive team, has recently left Apple after seven years on the job. This job-hopping is confirmed by Bass's LinkedIn page, and he is now the technical project management director at Meta (formerly Facebook).
With Bath's job-hopping, the Apple car management team from a year ago has almost all left. Prior to this, Apple's car project has changed 4 directors in 7 years. In September 2021, Ford announced a blockbuster poaching: Doug Field, apple car program director, was "revolted", a former Tesla senior executive who joined Apple in 2018, and he is also the fourth to step down in the history of Apple's car project "Titan Project".
The large loss of talent has cast a haze over Apple's car-making plan. But Guozi found an interesting thing, that is, even if the management of the car project changes frequently, the outside world is still optimistic about Apple Car, and there are even rumors that "it can be released in 2022". Apple cars want to be "premature"? As early as the end of last year, there were media reports that Apple's Apple Car would meet with fruit fans early. Supply chain personnel revealed that Apple has put forward stocking requirements to Heda, Trade Union - KY, Heqin, Tomita and other Taiwan auto parts factories in Tomita, and also included related companies in the first supply chain. Some supply chains in Taiwan Province of China have also confirmed that Apple expects to release apple cars in September 2022, two years earlier than originally planned. Not only that, but even the prototype of the Apple Car has been tested on the road in California. Fruit fans can start saving money, maybe it's really coming this time.
After so long, what does the Apple Car look like? Unfortunately, The fruit can't find too many exact revelations. Because compared to the iPhone that has been exposed every year before it is released, the secrecy of Apple cars is much stricter. Apple Car's Past and Present Lives Apple began a self-driving car program around 2014, code-named "Project Titan." Even for Apple, known for its culture of secrecy, project Titan is top secret within top secrets. Engineers engaged in related projects have signed sky-high liquidated damages, and they are not even allowed to disclose to the outside world that they are in and the details of their departments and work, nor can they write about this work experience on the LinkedIn. Even between the different teams of the Titan project, it is not clear how each other is working. This kind of secrecy measure is very similar to the first generation of iPhone developed by Apple: except for a few high-level people, the software and hardware departments do not know each other's work, and until the official release, few people have seen what the real iPhone looks like. Such a high level of confidentiality makes Guozi feel very much looking forward to it: Apple Car is likely to be like the iPhone of the year, which is another epoch-making product.
It is precisely because it is difficult to break through internally, and Apple is also tight-lipped about the car plan, so everyone is from the supply chain and patent news to push back the appearance of Apple's car. Guozi also found some predictions that looked relatively reliable to share with fox friends. Vanarama, a British car rental company, took inspiration from Apple products such as the iPhone and Macbook, and based on the "real patent submitted by Apple", produced a two-door Apple Car concept rendering of V.
In Vanarama's prediction, the Apple Car will have several "this is very Apple" design. For example, the Apple Car's seats can be fully rotated, the front and rear rows can face each other as if they were in the living room, and the column-free design can reduce the sense of estrangement and facilitate walking.
For example, the Apple Car door design can be glimpsed from apple patents: it can "provide greater flexibility for passenger movement and loading, and the newly designed windows increase the head space when boarding the car." Well? So, boys don't need to be very gentlemanly to the girls they like, and block their foreheads when they get on the bus?
For example, it can be inferred from Apple's patent that the steering column will have Siri built-in, and there will be a seamless, customizable dashboard and navigation screen in front. Guozi couldn't help but wonder, will these screens be the same as the iPad Pro, is there HDR and 120Hz adaptive refresh?
Some other Apple-style designs include glowing Apple logos like previous generations of Macbooks, as well as a matte white finish that's "the most popular color palette since the iPhone 4 was introduced in 2010." Of course, the ideal is very full, and the patent does not guarantee that Apple CaLi really looks like this. But Guozi feels that such a fruit car is indeed the Apple Car in Guozi's heart.
From various predictions and revelations, it is not difficult to find that Apple is also taking the road of full of scientific and technological wind, screen to the dashboard, and artificial intelligence autonomous driving. This direction, and Tesla, which is already relatively mature at present, can be described as a frontal bar. So Guozi also talked to fox friends about Apple's delicate relationship with Tesla, Cook and Musk.
At the end of 2020, Musk once tweeted that in the darkest days of Tesla's development of the Model 3, he had contacted Cook to discuss the possibility of acquiring Tesla. He wanted to sell Tesla to Apple at a valuation of $60 billion, which is only one-tenth of Tesla's valuation in 2020, but Cook declined the invitation to meet.
After a year, Cook finally responded in an interview at the end of 2021. He reiterated that he had not spoken to Musk, and although he did not know that Musk had tried to contact him, he believed that Musk had done so.
But none of that matters, because Today's Tesla is strong enough. At the end of October last year, Tesla became the first ever car company with a market value of more than a trillion US dollars, and it became the sixth public house in the world to exceed a trillion yuan in the united states, and it was Apple that completed this feat. In addition to the CEO, at the product level, the iPhone is also "incompatible" with Tesla Motors. Many users who are not in the Apple ecosystem will buy an iPhone as a backup machine because of Apple's perfect CarPlay system. Carplay has more than 600 models, covering "all major car manufacturers". But this obviously does not include Tesla.
In Tesla Cars, Apple users can't directly access Apple Music through specialized apps, but can only use Spotify provided by Tesla, or transfer music from iPhone to Tesla Cars via Bluetooth. But with Bluetooth, users can only control volume and fast forward, and can't access the entire library as they did in carPlay systems. Apple users also can not experience the CarPlay system navigation, voice calls and other functions directly associated with the phone on Tesla.
Tesla does not want to give up control of the in-vehicle system, precisely because CarPlay allows users to use Apple's services, which will have a huge impact on Tesla's existing or potential users when Apple Car is listed. Guozi believes that this also reflects from the side that Apple's car-making plan is not a castle in the air that is difficult to land. Otherwise, how can Musk, who has repeatedly said that "if you can't do it in Tesla, go to Apple, the graveyard of Tesla", look down on Apple and its car-making plan externally, but worry about it internally, like a big enemy? Guozi only hopes that at this year's Apple autumn conference, it can really see the long-rumored Apple Car, even if it is only a formal announcement rather than mass production. Because, for fruit fans, they haven't seen a real "One More Thing" in a long time!