Apple has entered quite a few new markets in recent years, including phones, tablets, and smartwatches, and lately the rumor mill has suggested that Apple might have its sights set on the automotive industry next. Now a new report claims that Apple has committed itself to making a car.
Sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal say that Apple has given its electric car project, codenamed Titan, the go-ahead by dubbing it a “committed project.” Now that it’s earned that designation, Apple will let leaders of the Titan effort triple its 600-person team. In recent months, Apple has brought battery experts, auto industry veterans, and even driverless car experts on to the Titan team, though today’s report claims that Apple doesn’t plan to make its first car totally driver-free.
The Cupertino firm’s electric car purportedly has a target ship date of 2019. However, the sources of today’s report say that some Titan team members are skeptical that Apple will meet its goal.
Apple’s electric car is an ambitious project. The company is know for making computers with tons of little chips and batteries inside them, and while that knowledge could help when building a car for the first time, there’s still a lot of other stuff that Apple will have to deal with. That includes an electric motor, a factory to build its cars in, and tons of regulatory bodies in the government. Apple definitely has a lot of work ahead of it, but because it’s one of the biggest computer companies around the world and it’s got billions of dollars in its war chest, Apple certainly has some strong assets at its disposal.
