With a mind of its own

TECHNOLOGY giant Apple is looking beyond mobile devices to learn how to make a self-driving electric car, and is talking to experts at carmakers and automotive suppliers, a senior auto industry source familiar with the discussions has revealed.
 
The California-based maker of phones, computers and, soon, watches is exploring how to make an entire vehicle, not just designing automotive software or individual components, the auto industry source said.

“They don’t appear to want a lot of help from carmakers,” said the source, who declined to be named.

Apple is gathering advice on parts and production methods, focusing on electric and connected-car technologies, while studying the potential for automated driving.

“Fully automated driving is an evolution. Carmakers will slowly build the market for autonomous cars by first releasing connected and partially-automated cars,” the auto industry source added. “Apple is interested in all the potential ways you can evolve the car; that includes autonomous driving.”

Whether it will build and release an electric car or a more evolved autonomous vehicle remains to be seen, the source said. But clearly Apple has sharply raised its ambitions in automotive technology.

Car technology has become a prime area of interest for Silicon Valley companies ranging from Google, which has built a prototype self-driving car, to electric car-maker Tesla Motors.

An Apple spokesman in London on Saturday declined to comment on ‘rumours or speculation’.

Trying to build an actual car would mark a dramatic shift for the maker of the iPhone and iPad. Apple often researches projects which are then discarded, but has so far mainly stuck to its core expertise in mobile and electronic devices.

Autonomous driving is likely to emerge progressively as driver assistance systems become more sophisticated. Already, carmakers such as Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen’s Audi have revealed cars that can travel long distances without human intervention.

Analysts have said they see a $25 billion market for automated driving technology by 2020, with vehicle intelligence becoming ‘the key differentiating factor’. Experts do not expect fully automated cars to hit the road until 2025 or 2030, in part due to regulatory hurdles.

Two different sources have told news agency Reuters that Apple has tried to recruit auto industry experts in areas such as robotics.