Apple’s Secret Plan to Topple Tesla From the EV Throne
By: Hasindu Ariyarathna
Tags: Self Driving Cars, Gadgets, Future, Apple, Technology

Tesla is a behemoth in the auto industry. As of now, it is the most valued automaker in the world. At the initial phases of the company, it was highly disregarded by the critics saying that Tesla is bound to doom one way or another. Those doubts persisted until very recently, where Tesla really started to break through to the mass market with model 3 and model Y.

What Tesla did was a revolution, so it is natural for every other electric car maker to target Tesla as their main opponent whether they mention it or not. There were failed attempts, somewhat successful attempts, and now there are many who enter the scene with a good potential to topple the Tesla.

The newest member of this group is Apple. Well, Apple is actually not new to the game by any means. Steve Jobs reportedly had the idea for an Apple car in 2008, when they were in the early years of the iPhone. But instead of that, they focused on the development of the iPhone. Finally, Apple started to break into the EV space in 2014 with the ‘Project Titan’. It was started as a research and development project and elected Vice President Steve Zadesky, a former Ford engineer as project in-charge. For the project, Apple was also rumored to have hired Johann Jungwirth, the former president, and chief executive of Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America.

In the coming years, Apple was rumored to offer incentives to Tesla employees to join Apple. But Still, Apple was quiet about its self-driving technology. Only by 2015, Tim Cook stated their interest in the field.

“It would seem like there will be a massive change in that industry, massive change. You may not agree with that. That’s what I think…We’ll see what we do in the future. I do think that the industry is at an inflection point for massive change.” -October 2015, Tim Cook

Apple also reportedly partnered with Volkswagen in 2018. Although hundreds of Apple employees are working on an electric car in all these years, it is rumored that the project’s focus has now shifted to developing self-driving car software instead of an actual car.

But it is not certain as a reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that Apple is still working on an Apple Car that will launch between 2023 and 2025. Kuo believes the car will be Apple’s “next star product” with Apple able to offer “better integration of hardware, software, and services” than potential competitors in the automotive market.

Apple is already a tech giant, and it might have the biggest potential to challenge Tesla out of all the “Tesla killers”. They already have a loyal fan base devoted to the Apple ecosystem which was built well over a decade now. And it is not a surprise at all if Apple car comes with a custom version of iOS, similar to Android Automotive.

Apple might have the biggest potential to challenge Tesla out of all the “Tesla killers”.

As one of the wealthiest companies around, they have plenty of money to spend on new projects compared to other new EV startups. And Apple’s recent interest in Lidar technology may also be the lead star in their self-driving technology as it has great potential compared to the systems used in the present.