Apple met with California-based startup Canoo in early 2020 as part of its efforts to promote the development of its own “Apple Car” project.
The meetings took place in the first half of 2020 and addressed investment options until a possible acquisition, said people familiar with the matter. The Verge.
Allegedly, Apple was initially designed by Canoo’s scalable electric vehicle platform. Compared to other automakers and startups, the platform integrates more of the vehicle’s electronics and allows greater flexibility in the cabin design. Canoo, for his part, was interested in receiving an investment from Apple. However, negotiations failed and Canoo went public when it merged with a blank check fund in 2020.
News of Apple’s interest in Canoo comes amid reports that the tech giant in Cupertino is negotiating with Hyundai to manufacture an autonomous electric vehicle by 2024.
In February 2020, Hyundai and Canoo announced plans to co-develop electric vehicles. This announcement and any potential partnership between the two automakers appears to be unrelated to Apple’s involvement with either one.
Apple’s work on autonomous vehicle systems has been a poorly kept secret for years. The company’s vehicle division, internally dubbed Project Titan, has been developing autonomous car technology since at least 2014. Originally designed to focus on the development of a real production vehicle, the purpose of the project was changed to create the underlying autonomous systems of an autonomous car. In recent years, it seems that Apple has returned to creating a real “Apple Car”.
Rumors and speculation about an Apple electric vehicle increased again in December 2020, when Reuters reported that the company could launch a vehicle with “next level” battery technology in 2024.
TF Securities’ often-accurate analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, has proposed that the “Apple Car” cannot arrive before 2025, at the very least. At least one report stated that the project is so immature that it would take five to seven years for an “Apple Car” to become a reality.