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A new report from Bloomberg Today offers new details about Apple’s continuing efforts to build a self-driving electric car. According to the report, Apple has a “small team” working on Apple Car, but an exit is likely in at least five to seven years. The Apple Car team also added even more former Tesla executives, the report says.
The report explains:
The Cupertino, Calif.-Based tech giant has a small team of hardware engineers developing drive systems, vehicle interiors and external body designs with the goal of eventually shipping a vehicle. This is a more ambitious goal than in previous years, when the project mainly focused on creating an underlying autonomous driving system. The company also added other former executives from Tesla Inc. to the project.
Work on the Apple Car project has been delayed this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the report says. Currently, “the majority of the team are currently working from home or the office for a limited time” due to the pandemic. This slowed down Apple’s work on the project.
Engineers working on the project estimate that a product could be marketed “in five to seven years if Apple continues its plans.” Ultimately, however, the car would be “far from production” and “timelines could change.”
Apple and Tesla car
Bloomberg also has details of some recent hires for the Apple Car team, including former Tesla executives. Jonathan Sive, a former automotive engineer for Tesla, BMW and Waymo, is senior manager of the Apple Car team. And Apple hired former Tesla vice president Stuart Bowers in late 2020.
The report says that overall, Apple’s electric car team is “filled with dozens” of former Tesla hardware and software engineers. Apple currently has “several hundred” engineers currently working on the project.
Apple also recently hired Jonathan Sive, an automotive engineer from BMW AG, Tesla and Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, as the senior director of the automotive project. In 2019, Apple brought in Michael Schwekutsch, the former Tesla vice president in charge of drive systems, adding to a growing list of former Tesla employees working on the vehicle’s effort.
At the end of 2020, Apple also hired another former Tesla vice president, Stuart Bowers, according to a person familiar with the movement. He led Tesla’s autonomous driving technology team until mid-2019 and was an executive in residence at venture capital firm Greylock Partners until July, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Additionally, Michael Schwekutsch joined Apple’s engineering team in 2019 after previously serving as Tesla’s vice president of engineering. Apple has made a habit of hiring former Tesla employees for its self-driving car team. This led Tesla CEO Elon Musk to call Apple the “Tesla Graveyard”.
Musk also recently revealed that he is looking to sell Tesla to Apple for a fraction of its current value. Musk claims he contacted Apple CEO Tim Cook directly, but Cook was not interested in taking a meeting.
Finally, the report says Apple has a small hardware team working on “vehicle dynamics, powertrains, safety mechanics, and battery technology.” The goal is to “re-imagine the interior of a car for a future in which people drive passively rather than lead. Apple’s chip team is also working on processors to power the car’s autonomous driving system.
Today’s report from Bloomberg follows earlier reports from Reuters, which said Apple Car could go into production by 2024. Reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, however, said the Apple Car launch could be 2028 or later depending on various factors.
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