According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple has a “small team” working on Apple Car, however we will likely not see a release for at another least five to seven more years.
Bloomberg reported: “The Cupertino, California-based technology giant has a small team of hardware engineers developing drive systems, vehicle interior and external car body designs with the goal of eventually shipping a vehicle. That’s a more ambitious goal than in previous years when the project mostly focused on creating an underlying self-driving system. The company has also added more ex-Tesla Inc. executives to the project.”
The Apple Car, like so many countless other projects across all industries, has seen delays caused by the hardships brought on by the coronavirus pandemic: “The majority of the team is currently either working from home or at the office for limited time” causing advancements on Apple’s progress to be further delayed.
In addition to the new details on Apple’s efforts to produce a self-driving electric car, Bloomberg also obtained some information on the Apple Car team’s recent hires. New hires that include a former Tesla executives:
“Apple also recently hired Jonathan Sive, a vehicle engineer from BMW AG, Tesla and Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, as a senior manager on the car project. In 2019, Apple tapped Michael Schwekutsch, Tesla’s former vice president in charge of drive systems, adding to a growing list of former Tesla employees working on the vehicle effort.
Late in 2020, Apple also hired another former Tesla vice president, Stuart Bowers, according to a person familiar with the move. He led Tesla’s self-driving technology team until mid-2019 and was an executive-in-residence at venture capital firm Greylock Partners until July, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Apple’s car team is filled with dozens of other ex-Tesla hardware and self-driving car engineers. In total, Apple has several hundred engineers working on the project, with most of them developing the self-driving car system rather than the full-fledged vehicle.”
The recent reports from Reuters claiming the Apple Car could see production as early as 2024 seemed a little too good to be true. According to reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, he “would not be surprised” if Apple Car doesn’t arrive until “2028 or later.”