Starting in 2014, in line with previous rumours, Apple CEO, Tim Cook, gave a team of engineers the approval to a car (codename:Titan) which was going after Tesla and other electric car maker.
Now after some struggles internally, there’s been a change of direction. Apple has put on hold plans to build cars, focusing more on a self driving system that it could potentially market to other car makers.
According to reports, this decision was made due to some specific supply chain issues which held Apple back. One of the issues of getting into the car industry is the quality of components. The yields and margins aren’t that great as well as striking those supply chain deals which is really difficult.
As we all know, in the consumer electronics industry, Apple has been known for being one of the best at really knocking down those deals to get the best screens, the best processors at the cheapest prices and mass amount of volume. Going into the car industry and striking those deals is a totally different game in itself. So that definitely was a road block towards Apple building a full fledged Tesla competitor.
We were really excited to see Apple’s electric car ever since rumours of the project emerged but it seems like Apple is having second thoughts on becoming a car company.
Apple has decided on setting a clear deadline by waiting to the end of 2017 to see if its team would build a promising demo of the self driving technology, then evaluate the progress of its self driving platform and perhaps, if everything goes well, then over the next few years we could get to see which car makers Apple is choosing to partner with, if any.
