In Depth: Everything you need to know about the Apple Car

Mapping the rumours

Apple is to the rumour mill what Jeremy Clarkson is to offending people. The brand's every product sparks gossip and insider chit-chat in the run-up to its release – the Apple Watch had even the most knowledgeable tech head guessing about specifics right up to its unveiling. The phones, laptops, tablets et al are known unknowns until they appear.

However, there's another category of Apple rumour: the unknown unknowns. The gadgets that Apple is rumoured to be working on, but which never appear. The Watch was in this category for a long time. The Apple Television remains the subject of speculation, despite the lack of any evidence that one has ever even been worked on.

And then there's the car. Like the TV, it was another supposed pet project of the late Steve Jobs. Here's everything you need to know about it, all the reasons why it's highly unlikely, and a few reasons why it might just be something more than fanboy fantasy…

Gossip from way back when

Wall Street Journal tech writers Daisuke Wakabayashi and Mike Ramsey released a story at the beginning of February that set the rumour mill turning. According to the report, several hundred employees are said to be working on an Apple-branded electric car at a secret lab in Cupertino, one that CEO Tim Cook green lit almost a year ago.

But tales of a so-called "iCar" date back almost eight years, to when Volkswagen was reportedly in talks with the tech giant about incorporating products into its vehicles – although this likely turned out to be a discussion surrounding Apple's CarPlay infotainment system rather than anything Apple Car related.

However, Steve Jobs alluded to the potential of an Apple-branded vehicle when he told John Markoff of The New York Times that if he had more energy, he would have liked to "take on Detroit."

Whether this was merely Jobs hinting at a progressive in-car entertainment system rather than a revolutionary vehicle is anyone's guess, but last year Apple board member Mickey Drexler reiterated the fact that Jobs was interested in cars during an interview with Paul Goldberger.

He stated with much confidence that if Jobs had lived he was going to design an "iCar". Drexler is stepping down from Apple's board this month.

The rumours resurface

Mike Ramsey, an automotive reporter working in Detroit, co-wrote a piece that started all of this in the Wall Street Journal early last month, stating that Apple was working on a top secret project dubbed "Titan" that supposedly involves hundreds of employees working on an Apple-branded vehicle.

Ramsey said that alarms bells were raised in Silicon Valley with Apple's unusual hiring of staff outside of the consumer technology arena.

"Apple hired the head of research and development from Mercedes-Benz's North American R&D labs and that was a pretty odd hiring," Ramsey said in a recent interview.

"You can understand that maybe Apple did this to move its CarPlay research on, but it seems this level of experience goes way beyond simple in-car entertainment systems."

After the story was published, California residents added fuel to the flames by claiming that vans registered to Apple had been seen cruising the streets, sporting all manner of LIDAR and radar technology.

Paul Godsmark, chief technology officer at the Canadian Automated Vehicles Centre of Excellence, told Cult of Mac that these data-gathering vans appeared to be mapping the streets.

Apple Car naysayers instantly hit back with an argument that Apple was, in fact, gathering data for its own version of Google's Street View rather than working on a vehicle. But those with knowledge of autonomous motoring reasoned that self-driving cars require detailed maps to operate. Could Apple's car be an autonomous pod to rival Google's recent work?

Mike Ramsey doesn't think so: "There's no doubt that if Apple moves forward with its car, it would feature autonomous elements.

"But we are a long way off having an affordable vehicle that can drive itself. A pure electric vehicle would be more sensible to pursue because it's very simple.

"There's no engine or exhaust system to engineer, which is the reason why Tesla got involved in the industry in the first place," he adds.

The evidence mounts

Allegations that Apple had been pinching staff from battery manufacturer A123 soon surfaced after the initial "iCar" reports made national news.

According to a lawsuit field against the tech giant, Apple had been poaching A123 staff and Tesla workers for its own battery projects.

Cynics would say that Apple could be doing this merely in order to take its battery research in-house, thus decreasing overheads and potentially speeding up the process. Not a bad thing, considering an iPhone barely lasts a day without needing to plug it in.

The market reacts

But the opposition believes that Apple would need to assemble a team of this size only in order to set the wheels in motion for much larger, battery-operated projects, such as an all-electric vehicle, for example.

We approached Tesla about the potential poaching of staff, but were met with a brick wall. "As it's not a Tesla-specific article, I will struggle to get buy-in from the US on this occasion," said a UK-based Tesla spokesperson.

"I'm afraid that we don't offer comment on wider industry topics. Our spokespeople would only be able to talk about Tesla product specifically," they added.

Again, when pressed about Tesla's own plans to build larger, commercial-use battery technology, the company wasn't inclined to comment at the time of going to press.

Money in the bank

The overarching argument in favour of Apple completely tearing up the automotive rulebook relates to money.

The Cupertino corporation is estimated to have a total market capitalisation of $750billion, which is more than Daimler, Volkswagen, Renault, Peugeot, Fiat Chrysler, Ford and General Motors put together.

Paul Horrell, an automotive writer for Top Gear Magazine, estimates that launching a mass-market car from scratch would cost around $25billion, which is chump change for Apple.

But this is before you consider the extensive dealership and support network required to sell vehicles and keep them on the road. Could this be an issue for Apple?

"If Apple really wanted to, it could buy out most of the automotive manufacturers currently in existence," argued Mike Ramsey of the Wall Street Journal during a recent chat.

"Apple doesn't build iPhones, it doesn't build iPads. The company has always approached things from a design and engineering angle, and the same could be true if it produced cars.

"I would speculate that Apple would simply pay another manufacturer to build the car that they have designed."

The industry reacts

Although tech heads across the globe would love to see an Apple Car cruising the streets, most within the automotive industry feel it just won't happen. There are simply too many barriers and hurdles the company would face if it wished to succeed.

Apple has zero experience in building and marketing cars, for a start, and no matter how many employees it pinches from rival companies; nothing can better years of hard graft invested in an industry.

"I'd certainly be worried about any new competitor coming into the market, but where Apple is concerned I would have to ask whether they could get the scale to make it profitable," says Phil Crossman, managing director for Honda UK.

"Tesla build a small amount of cars but get a disproportionate amount of PR from them. Apple most certainly would do the same and I think it might be great for California, but would the rest of America get into it? Would Europe buy into it? I don't know?" he adds.

Let's look at Tesla; the company is only just hitting its stride with a semi-popular Model S, the Model X has been delayed multiple times and Musk's automotive vision continues to lose money. Furthermore, electric cars are yet to replace the internal combustion engine as a global choice of transport.

Even Honda, a company that has built a reputation on innovation, has moved away from the all-electric car, instead favouring hydrogen as a more sustainable source of energy.

BMW, Nissan and Renault already offer pure electric vehicles, but those companies are recouping the losses that come with blazing a trail thanks to an extensive and popular line-up of top-selling petrol and diesel cars.

Just look at sales of the Renault Zoe or the Nissan Leaf, impressive for a completely new technology but nowhere near enough to start winding down production of its gas-powered motors.

But the automotive industry must innovate to survive, and even a relatively old-school automotive manufacturer such as Mercedes-Benz is dabbling with new ideas.

A recent unveiling of the Mercedes F015 concept at this year's Consumer Electronics Show suggests it is pushing on with all manner of autonomous driving technology and alternative powertrains.

However, even Mercedes head honcho Dieter Zetsche doesn't see Apple as a threat in the automotive industry. He told journalists from Australia's Motoring.com.au at a recent product launch event: "If there were a rumour that Mercedes or Daimler planned to start building smartphones then they (Apple) would not be sleepless at night. And the same applies to me.

"And this is full of respect for Apple."

Zetsche also reiterated a question posed by many industry insiders, as to why Apple would consider entering a market in which they weren't top dog – a market where the profit margins are not as favourable as those in the consumer tech industry.

But what if?

"Why (Apple) with this kind of margin would now go into this business? I think investors will hate it because they don't like conglomerates, they want focused management on what they understand.

"Perhaps some neighbouring fields, but not somewhere different. The fact you can listen to iTunes in a car doesn't make it in itself consistent.

"I don't know their strategy and I do not know what they are doing, but I would be very surprised if that proved to be right," he added.

Phil Crossman, managing director for Honda UK, echoed the thoughts of most within the industry, telling us: "The smart thing for Apple to do would be to work alongside manufacturers and concentrate on what they are good at, infotainment. We are good at making cars and they are good at consumer electronics. It's as simple as that"

But what if?

The question is, will Apple always be happy with that niche? As Google dabbles in everything from heads-up displays to VR goggles made of cardboard to, yes, self-driving cars, Apple is left looking dull by comparison. Profitable, but dull.

All jokes about not having Windows and poor battery life aside, if the Apple Car were to see the light of day it would undoubtedly feature an electric powertrain. It seems too far-fetched for the maker of the iPhone to suddenly dabble in internal combustion engines.

So, a rival to Tesla's beautiful EVs appears to be the most sensible conclusion, and this opens up a number of exciting and innovative features that could one day make it to market.

Seamless integration between Apple's smartphones and smartwatches would be the immediate assumption. Customers would be able to lock and unlock their vehicles simply by having an iPhone tucked in their pocket or an Apple Watch on their wrist.

Apple would also likely allow owners to check on their vehicle's status remotely via a branded device. This would make locating the Apple Car in a busy car park simpler; customers could remotely heat and cool their vehicles, as well as receive notifications on charge status.

The thing is, none of that is new. BMW and Tesla already offer this kind of connectivity via smarpthone apps, but it seems fair to assume Apple's integration of software would be more creative, powerful and impressive.

Design would also play a major part in the process – with Apple responsible for some of the most stylish technology products of the last decade, there's no doubting they'd try to make "Car" as stylish as possible. They would want it to look different to existing cars, too.

However, we're talking here about a mature industry where some of the greatest designers in history have spent billions of dollars to create the most beautiful and aerodynamic cars possible. Can Apple really bring anything new to that particular party?

Yes it can, if cars no longer look or behave like cars as we know them.

Now, some reports have suggested Apple wants to get its hypothetical car project off the drawing board by 2020. This date just happens to coincide with the automotive industry's prediction of when we will see the first autonomous vehicles going on sale.

Volvo, a company that has been working tirelessly towards a semi-autonomous driving future, claims that its latest research will see real commuters behind the wheel of its self-driving XC90 vehicles by 2016.

Mercedes-Benz also believes that we will see legislation change in the next few years that will allow certain aspects of autonomous driving to be legalised.

If Apple's car is to be produced, it will be released into an environment where emailing, texting and catching up with online news while behind the wheel will no longer land you in jail.

When that happens, car design will no longer need to be based around forward-facing seats and aerodynamics. They will have the scope to become more like offices or rooms on wheels. Apple will be able to bring truly fresh design ideas to bear, while traditional auto marques continue to build and market cars as things to drive.

This would also allow the brand to Apple-ise the way we interact with in-car entertainment, employing its usual neat approach – intuitive, simple UIs, extended eco-systems and seemingly irresistible content flogging – to own the in-car entertainment space.

It'll beam news to interior touchscreens, pump iTunes music through a cutting-edge, 15th-generation Beats soundsystem and stream movies to Retina Displays. And the windows will be touchscreens with artfully placed streaks of virtual water flowing down them – so much better than the view outside.

"A car is becoming more of a microprocessor and a software-driven device rather than a mechanical product," Mike Ramsey said.

"Apple might not be looking at the car as a margin and profitability assessment, rather as an investment area. Just look at Nvidia and Qualcomm: the automotive industry has quickly become their second biggest client after the tech firms."

My view? For now, Apple will continue to push CarPlay and iPhone/iPad integration to existing car brands. Its recent bouts of hiring from the auto industry are to ensure it remains the biggest player in smartphone integration into cars.

In fact, as long as humans are required to make cars drive, Apple won't make one. However, as autonomous cars become the norm, automotive is exactly the kind of area Apple could muscle into and disrupt. The road to that day is likely to be a long and winding one, though.

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Original source: In Depth: Everything you need to know about the Apple Car.