BMW and Magna may partner with Apple in cars

After Hyundai withdrew from the race to make an autonomous car for Apple, other competitors may include BMW and Magna, 9To5Mac reported on Tuesday (February 9).

Hyundai said last month that it was unsure whether it wanted to enter into the deal with Apple and announced on Monday (February 8) that it would not do so. South Korea requires publicly traded companies to provide public updates when there is speculation about prolific rumors that could affect stock prices.

An agreement would have relegated the automaker to just one manufacturer with little participation in decision-making. The report notes Hyundai’s traditional reticence to work with outside collaborators and has generally worked alone making engines and transmissions as the largest South Korean conglomerate.

“Apple is the boss. They do their marketing, they make their products, they make their brand. Hyundai is also the boss. It doesn’t really work, ”said a source, according to the report.

So now the race is open, but reports say there are reasons why bigger companies may be afraid to make a deal – with companies that are likely to be put in the shoes of Pegatron and Foxconn, who make iPhones for Apple, but don’t get big funding rewards for doing this. Other automakers like Volkswagen have expressed a desire not to allow Apple to enter its business.

Smaller companies may be more open, the report says, including companies like Honda, Nissan, Stellantis and BMW, according to Jürgen Pieper, an analyst at German bank Metzler, cited in the report. In addition, Magna, which already makes cars for other automakers, can also be considered.

Apple more than doubled the tests of its autonomous technology last year, reports Bloomberg. The company’s cars ran 18,605 miles in 2020, compared to 7,544 the previous year. According to Apple, there were also 130 shutdowns, that is, when a human driver had to take the place of the autonomous vehicle.

Apple’s recent work on self-driving cars has recently come to compete with rivals like Tesla and General Motors. But the tech giant is unlikely to have its own product on the road for several years.