[imagesource:instagramgeorgitedoradze]

Apple seems to be taking a step into the car market with details being leaked online of its new iCar, which is set to be a whole lot pricier than a new iPhone.

Apple has spent the past decade skirting rumours of the iCar, but since Tesla’s explosion in popularity, it’s been reported the tech giant is developing the product in earnest.

Even Elon Musk has confirmed Apple’s working on a vehicle is an open secret in the industry, telling the BBC in 2016: “It’s pretty hard to hide if you hire a thousand engineers to do it.”

Why not? It runs on batteries and has a whole plethora of tech in it. At the time of Musk’s comments, Apple appeared to confirm the news, saying it was “excited about the potential of automated systems in many areas, including transportation”.

The vehicle, unofficially dubbed the ‘iCar’, is reportedly known by the Apple engineers working on it as ‘Project Titan’. There’s not much info coming from Apple, so most of what we know is from ‘insider reports’ and general speculation, but it would be expected that the car would run on Apple’s in-house operating system, iOS, which isn’t particularly surprising.

That means the car will be intimately linked to the iPhone, likely with a built-in display on which users can play music, navigate maps and potentially even unlock and start their vehicle.

If the iCar is real, it would likely be the direct competitor with Tesla and might shy away from the sports vehicle design to rather focus on the SUV market.

Georgi Tedoradze, a Georgia-based industrial designer, released images of what he believes the Apple iCar may look like. Initially, it was reported the iCar would be entirely autonomous — as in, without a steering wheel or pedals — and users could relax, watch TV or play games as the vehicle drove them around.

 

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A post shared by Giorgi Tedoradze (@tedoradze.giorgi)

More recently, though, industry experts have said that technology isn’t yet feasible. According to multiple sources, Apple is more likely to be aiming for a less ambitious model. A Bloomberg report, for instance, suggests the iCar will have both steering wheels and pedals and will be only semi-autonomous.

The reported release date of the highly anticipated vehicle has already been pushed back several times. Most recently, it’s been reported Apple is gearing towards a launch date between 2025 and 2027. So you’ll likely get the new iPhone 24 before you can get your hands on the iCar.

Seeing as Apple is rather pricey with their tech, the expected price for their new car will be quite high. Auto website Supercar Blondie recently speculated the vehicle will sit in the same price range as its main competitors, Tesla’s Model X and Sony’s new Afeela EV.

That means its price will be around $150,000 (R2.8 million). For Apple enthusiasts, and considering current inflation trends, this might be worth it in 2027.

Since our partners at DigiCape are South Africa’s go-to for all things Apple, does this mean we will see DigiCape showrooms stocked with high-tech cars in the near future?

Since this is all just speculation and AI art, we’ll have to wait and see.

[source:news.au]