Last week we reported on Apple’s mysterious van that seemed to employ self-driving car technologies. Now an Apple employee is seemingly boasting about the company’s work on a car-related project, though what that actually consists of remains a secret.
The whole thing started when a mysterious black van, fitted with numerous cameras and a LiDAR system, was seen roaming the streets of a small town. It was soon discovered that the vehicle was registered to Apple, which raised numerous questions alongside the possibility that the company might be working on self-driving cars.
Now Business Insider is reporting that a verified Apple employee contacted the publication, giving them a bit of extra info on Apple’s work with cars. The employee was seemingly very enthusiastic about the project saying:
Apple’s latest project is too exciting to pass up. I think it will change the landscape and give Tesla a run for its money.
The employee went on to state that Tesla employees were jumping ship and coming over to Apple to work on this project. No doubt a reported signing bonus of $250,000 and huge salary increases might be helping Apple recruit Elon Musk’s talent.
However this statement contradicts an earlier report from Bloomberg, which quoted Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, in saying that “very few” employees were actually going from Tesla to Apple. The same report mentioned that the real flow of workers was the other way around with Tesla poaching numerous Cupertino engineers.
With all that being said, Apple’s work on a car-related project is still intriguing, although self-driving cars still seem like an unlikely project for the company, and too far outside Apple’s expertise. A much more likely scenario would be that the iPhone maker is actually working on some kind of integrated solution for cars: a system based on iOS that offers new experiences when combining a smart car with an iDevice.
And, in fact, Apple already has such a solution, albeit one that’s just now starting to hit markets: CarPlay. It passes control of the car’s entertainment system to a user’s iPhone. A future version with many new features and experiences seems like exactly the type of project that could “change the landscape”.
Source: Business Insider | Van image via Claycord.com