Apple plans to ship an electric car by 2019 — WSJ

Apple plans to build an electric car and ship it by 2019, according to a Wall Street Journal report. 

The company has spent more than a year investigating the feasibility of an Apple-branded car, including meetings with two groups of government officials in California, the Journal says, quoting un-named sources familiar with the matter (and it's worth taking seriously. Unlike some blog sites, the Journal has a solid track-record pre-announcing Apple's next moves).

The electric car effort has now been designated internally as a “committed project,” with the go-ahead given to triple its 600-person team.

Apple has hired experts in driverless cars, the Journal says but the people familiar with Apple’s plans say the company doesn’t currently plan to make its first electric vehicle fully autonomous, at least in Version 1.0.

Creating an electric car within four years seems ambitious. The Journal notes it's not clear if the 2019 "ship date" is a target for the car's commercial release, or to have the first prototype.

It's also not clear who will make Apple's car. The Californian company outsources most of its gadget production to Foxconn in China. Finding a contract-manufacturer to assemble a car will be a more complex endeavour.

Some will wonder why Apple, which now has around $US203 billion in the bank, doesn't just buy Tesla.

First 'Carplay' vehicles due
On a related note, two years ago Apple announced CarPlay, a system that lets your iPhone directly connect to a car's dashboard display — for better integration of features like mapping, music, streaming radio and hands-free calling.

CarPlay can be controlled via a simplified, big icon version of iOS that appears on your dashboard, or Siri voice commands (which US previews say work well).

Now the first cars with CarPlay support are finally being rolled out over the next few months in the US, including 14 models from Chevrolet. Hyundai, Honda and Volkswagen will follow shortly.

Almost every big car maker, including Ford, GM, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Audi and BMW has committed to supporting CarPlay ... though I would give a penny for their thoughts now Apple is apparently entering the car-making business.

POSTSCRIPT: Apple's crew working on driverless vehicle technology will want to check out its rival's recent experience. Google driver-less cars* have been involved in a series of fender-benders around the US. The problem: Google's computerised vehicles follows the road rules perfectly. Humans behind the wheel do not. So far, Google is struggling to deal with their unpredictability.

* Which do have a person onboard as they are trialled

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