Tim Cook reveals possibility of Apple Car, expresses admiration for Elon Musk

The Apple brand has long been associated with rumours of an autonomous car in the making. Recently, Apple chief Tim Cook hinted at the same during an interview on the "Sway" Kara Swisher podcast. Although he was okay with talking about his admiration of autonomous cars and his idea behind it, Cook was careful not to reveal too much and managed to avoid questions that outright asked if Apple is on the plan of producing a car.

Tim Cook talks about autonomous tech and hints at Apple car

"An autonomous car is a robot. And so there’s lots of things you can do with autonomy. And we’ll see what Apple does," said Cook, as he voiced his admiration for autonomous cars. “We love to integrate hardware, software and services, and find the intersection points of those because we think that’s where the magic occurs. And we love to own the primary technology that’s around that.”

By the looks of what he stated, Apple seems to be interested in the idea of building an autonomous-driving technology platform more than building a car. Having said that, it is true that the company has always been much more inclined towards manufacturing. It wouldn't be surprising to find out that the Apple car would be manufactured by their in-house engineers.

Earlier this year, strong rumours were floating around about Apple being in talks with Japan-based Nissan and South Korea-based Hyundai and Kia for building the Apple car. According to sources close to Apple, the company wants to work with an automaker that will let them hold the gear on every software and hardware that will go into the making of the car. But the deal eventually fell apart in February and everything came back to square one. At this point, it is difficult to know when will Apple car come out or what it will look like but it seems like the car will be going up against Musk's Tesla.

Tim Cook established his appreciation for Tesla maker Elon Musk in the Kara Swisher podcast as well. "I’ve never spoken to Elon, although I have great admiration and respect for the company he’s built. I think Tesla has done an unbelievable job of not only establishing the lead but keeping the lead for such a long period of time in the EV space. So I have great appreciation for them.”

To put it shortly, Apple has been actively working on Project Titan that is being led by Doug Field, former Senior Vice President of Engineering at Tesla. Tim Cook's recent interview suggests the possibility of Apple being the manufacturer and the car incorporating autonomous driving systems. Lastly, the car has plans of being a strong contender for Tesla in the EV space.

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