No, the ‘Apple Car’ won’t be an electric van

The “Apple Car” won’t be a car at all, but rather an electric van, according to German site Manager Magazin, as noted by MacRumors. The article says:

“… the Apple Car could come in the form of an electric van. Apple’s engineers have designed specimens with black and silver paint, designed in the typical industrial design of the iPhone group. Apple also researches on its own batteries, electric motors, special seats and interior components.”

However, there won’t be an Apple-branded electric van because, according to my crystal ball, Apple isn’t planning to build its own automobile. In June 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed to Bloomberg that the company is developing self-driving car technology, which he calls a “core” technology.

“We’re focusing on autonomous systems,” Cook said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “It’s a core technology that we view as very important We sort of see it as the mother of all AI projects. It’s probably one of the most difficult A.I. projects actually to work on.”

Notice he said “car technology” and “autonomous systems,” not a vehicle itself.  As I’ve said numerous times, I don’t think Apple will build a full-fledged car. Instead, I think it will work with current car manufacturers on hardware and software implementations. For example, the tech giant signed a deal with Volkswagen to make self-driving cars after BMW and Mercedes-Benz reportedly rebuffed the tech giant’s requests to hand over control of the data and design of the planned cars.