If the latest (sensational) report from the Wall Street Journal proves true, Apple’s entry into the electric vehicle market is merely four years away.
Unsubstantiated rumors about the car have swirled for months – if not years – but the latest story suggests Apple is indeed about to shake-up the automotive industry – the same way it did the cell phone market with the iPhone and digital music with the iPod before that.
The mythical Project Titan is in “committed project” status, according to WSJ (per Mashable), whose report was published on Monday. The story outlines Apple has 600 employees dedicated to the EV project and is aiming to triple that number ahead of the “target ship date of 2019.”
The report continues with the news that just last week, Apple’s reps met with officials at the California Department of Motor Vehicles to discuss the current legal status of self-driving cars. This suggests that Apple is at least looking into the feasibility of creating a self-driving car or likely only exploring it as a future project – not as an imminent product.
State legislation and regulation are still up in the air on the topic, and Mashable points out consumer sentiment also “needs to catch up with technology” although semi-autonomous features are starting to appear in cars such as the 2016 Honda Civic.
Apple’s EV is widely seen as yet another competitor to Tesla, and the Model S maker’s stock price stalled on the heels of the WSJ report. According to Seeking Alpha, the NASDAQ-listed Tesla stock was up just 0.5% after being up close to 4% before the report.
Photo Credit: Newspress
