Billions of dollars in research, more than 1,000 developers, mysterious workshops — the Apple iCar is set to revolutionize transportation, bringing with it technologies that promise to alter the way cars have been used and perceived.
Behind the pre-fabricated aluminium facade of a building on an industrial site in Sunnyvale, Calif., work is progressing on what could be the most significant car to emerge since Karl Benz’s Benz Patent-Motorwagen introduced the world to the motorized carriage 130 years ago.
The unit houses an electric car workshop run by Apple, the California-based electronics giant. Known simply to Apple employees as SG6, the building has been the subject of speculation since Sunnyvale city council documents revealed a shell company formed by Apple had leased the site in November 2015.
The only hint that activities are of an automotive nature is a fleet of Dodge Caravan prototypes that frequent the site and which have been seen at the GoMentum Station, a former naval base in San Francisco with over 20 miles of paved streets that’s often used by car makers for testing.
According to industry experts, the vehicles, leased by Apple, are being used to test autonomous driving technology, which is thought to be under consideration for the so-called iCar — the name given to what’s being billed as Apple’s next big thing.
Need-to-know basis
As it stands, no one outside the company knows for sure if Apple intends to develop its own electric car or is simply developing technology to integrate into the future models of traditional car makers. However, with more than 1,000 employees from backgrounds as diverse as engineering and autonomous software coding already claimed to be involved in the so-called iCar, many are betting on the former.
When asked about the electric car last year, Apple president Tim Cook said only, “I don’t have anything to announce about our plans. But I think there’s some significant changes in the automobile industry over the next several years with electrification and autonomous driving. And there’s a need for a focus on user interface.”
Those who have held talks with Apple during the past 12 months — including executives from Audi, BMW, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, General Motors and Mercedes-Benz — are convinced Mr. Cook has given the go-ahead to the partly autonomous iCar and expect it will be launched by 2021 as a precursor to a fully autonomous model to be introduced around 2026 as regulations allow features such as fully automated parking.
Apple’s goal? An initial 500,000 sales annually, according to those who have met with Mr. Cook. It is an acceptable target for a company new to the automotive scene and 10 times what another California electric car startup, Tesla, managed in 2015.
Mr. Cook is relying on the implementation of what business leaders call “disruptive technologies” — a term given to features expected to change the face of motoring in the same way the touch screen changed the mobile phone: highly efficient electric propulsion, rapid charging, autonomous driving capability, gesture control, holographic displays, wireless internet functions, artificial intelligence.
The product is king
One of the factors driving Apple’s plans are predictions that the growth of digitization, increasing automation and mobility sharing models will revolutionize the automotive industry within the next 15 years. A report by McKinsey and Co. earlier this year suggests the industry will diversify toward on-demand mobility solutions, creating up to $1.5 trillion in additional revenue in global car sales by 2030.
Mr. Cook has provided the iCar project with a working title —Project Titan — and has assembled experts from a range of industries.
Backing up reports that the iCar had been upgraded to a “committed project” last September, Mr. Cook has made a number of key changes following an internal review in February that led to the departure of Apple’s product design boss, Steve Zadesky, who was the head of its electric car operations.
Mr. Zadesky, a former Ford engineer, had worked on the iPod and iPhone. He is succeeded by Apple veteran Bob Mansfield, who has the task of expanding the iCar’s focus toward autonomous driving in a move that means working both on hardware and software solutions in-house.
Mr. Mansfield joined the company in 1999 and was a leading executive under founder Steve Jobs. After overseeing hardware engineering development of some of the most popular Apple products, including the MacBook Air, iMac and iPad, he stepped back from day-to-day operations in 2012. Mr. Mansfield was retained as an adviser to special projects, including the Apple Watch.
The allure of working for Apple has attracted many highly regarded people. Among those contributing to the iCar’s development is the former development boss at Tesla and Aston Martin, Chris Porritt. Other recruits from Tesla include former senior powertrain engineer John Ireland; engineering manage, David Nelson; CNC programmer David Masiukiewicz; and driver assistance specialist Hal Ockerse.
Such has been the brain drain at Tesla that its founder, Elon Musk, commented on the iCar, saying it was “obvious” Apple was working on its own car. “It’s pretty hard to hide something if you hire over a thousand engineers to do it,” he said.
Apple has also hired Megan McClain, a former Volkswagen engineer; Doug Betts, who was responsible for quality at Fiat Chrysler; Paul Furgale, an autonomous driving program specialist from the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich; Stefan Weber, a former Bosch engineer; Vinay Palakkode, a researcher from Carnegie Mellon University; and Lech Szumilas, an autonomous driving expert from Delphi; and Xianqiao Tong, who developed a driver assistance system for chip maker NVIDIA.
Still, the design and user interface are key to the iCar’s success. The man responsible for the styling of Apple’s first car, Jonathon Ive, has led the design teams for products including the iMac, iBook, MacBook Pro, iCube, iPod, iPhone and iPad.
Apple has trademarked and registered possible names for its new car. The internet search agent Whois revealed it registered a number of internet domain names, including apple.car, apple.cars and apple.auto via the company MarkMonitor in January 2016.
While the move could simply be to stop opportunists snapping up the names and selling them at inflated prices, Apple has a history of registering domain names shortly before a product appears.
SixtyEight Research
Ground zero for the iCar is the workshop in Sunnyvale. In this Silicon Valley suburb, Apple is rumored to be developing elements of its newest product under the shell company, SixtyEight Research.
Shortly after the leasing of the site, word spread within industry circles about a research and development lab established by Apple in Berlin, Germany.
Initial reports suggested Berlin was being used to test electric motors sourced from a German supplier, possibly Bosch or ZF. However, the official line is the lab is part of Apple Maps — the navigation app that is set to play a crucial role in providing the iCar with autonomous operation.
The mapping lab was set up following the joint purchase by Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler of Nokia’s mapping division Here. Apple’s primary goal? To poach high-ranking officials from Here.
Apple has courted car makers with the view toward outsourcing assembly of its new car.
It appeared Apple may have secured a partner in BMW. But after Mr. Cook inspected production of the i3 at a factory in Germany in 2015, BMW allegedly pulled back.
A similar liaison with Mercedes-Benz has been confirmed by insiders at parent company Daimler, who suggest Apple was interested in partnering on the iCar’s production. However, aggressive maneuvering by Apple is claimed to have annoyed Mercedes-Benz boss Dieter Zetsche.
Talks with Fiat Chrylser were abandoned when it was revealed the company had partnered with Google to develop autonomous driving technology.
First Published: September 12, 2016, 4:00 a.m.