For years, rumors have continued to circulate about the Apple Car project. But this year, it would have finally been abandoned by Apple, despite the large investments already made. In an article published in February, Bloomberg indicated that the Cupertino company would have announced the end of the Apple Car to the nearly 2,000 employees working on this project. Apple has also reportedly relocated many employees to projects related to artificial intelligence.
But today, the Apple Car is in the news again, following the publication of an article from Digitime, relayed by our colleagues at 9to5Mac. According to this new rumor, Apple is now considering working with a startup specializing in electric cars. This startup could be Rivian.
As a reminder, Rivian is a competitor to Tesla which is also based in the United States. Previously, rumors about a possible acquisition of Rivian by Apple also circulated on the web.
A simple rumor
For the moment, this information should be considered with caution, since it does not come from an official source. Furthermore, at this stage it would only be speculation from the supply chain. But in any case, this kind of partnership would allow Apple to exploit the technologies it has already developed, without having to design an electric vehicle from A to Z. In any case, the Apple Car could have been the new big new from Apple, after the launch of the iPhone in 2007.
Otherwise, it should be remembered that unlike Apple, the Chinese brand Xiaomi has managed to carve out a place for itself in the electric car market. After forming a subsidiary specializing in automobiles, the smartphone maker recently launched its first electric cars on the Chinese market.
For its part, the Waymo subsidiary of Alphabet (Google) specializes in autonomous driving.
