car stuff
author? |? James
editor? |? Han Xiao
Car news on December 1th, this week, news about Apple's car-making began to ferment again.
on Tuesday, the head of Apple's autonomous driving department was replaced, and John, senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy? Giannandrea takes over from Bob who has worked at Apple for more than 2 years? Mansfield, and Bob retired at Apple for the second time.
On Wednesday, the media DigiTimes reported that Apple is setting up an automobile assembly plant in the United States, and has started preliminary cooperation talks with global automotive electronics suppliers. It is estimated that from 224 to 225, "Apple? Car will be officially unveiled. At the same time, Apple is currently cooperating with TSMC to develop autonomous driving chips.
DigiTimes predicts that Apple will make its debut in 224-225
Since 214, it has been reported that Apple is developing smart cars, and the project team is called Titan. At the same time, Apple has also recruited people from traditional car companies such as Tesla, Chrysler and Volkswagen.
However, in 217, Cook said in an interview that he was working on developing an autonomous driving system, and the outside world thought that the Titan project seemed to have been shelved. But interestingly, in recent years, Apple has been applying for various automobile patents, involving autonomous driving, intelligent cockpit, intelligent body and other fields, and many practices are very groundbreaking. The brain hole is bigger than Tesla, and it makes the outside world feel that Apple does not seem to give up the dream of building a car.
Please refer to the previous report "Apple's heart of making cars will never die! 3 patents were added in one year, all of which are black technologies, and 7 patents decrypt Apple cars! The brain hole is too big for Tesla to catch up with ","Apple plays smart cars, and the road is wilder than Tesla ".
driven by Tesla, there is a wave of smart electric vehicles all over the world. New car companies are constantly emerging, and traditional car companies are also actively transforming. The market values of Tesla, Weilai, Tucki, Ideality and other companies are also constantly reaching new heights.
under the background of excellent situation and active encouragement from governments all over the world, it is hard to imagine that players with money, technology, technology accumulation and brands like Apple will turn a blind eye to this market.
If the Taiwanese media's statement is true, Apple has now set up a supply chain and plans to build a factory for production, then it is not impossible for it to come up with a shocking product.
At that time, Apple is likely to lead and reshape the industry again, just like in the fields of computers, smart phones, smart watches and Bluetooth headsets.
1. Does Apple plan to build an automobile factory in the United States? The new car will be unveiled in 224 at the earliest
DigiTimes media said that recent news from automotive electronics and other related supply chains showed that Apple would set up a factory to manufacture cars in the United States, and the production plan, preliminary technology and product parameters have been basically determined. At present, it has started preliminary cooperation negotiations with automotive electronics suppliers.
At present, Apple is learning about the technical specifications, costs, product prospects and other indicators of automobile products, which is similar to the RFQ process in the industry. At the same time, many suppliers have begun to send samples to Apple. After determining the supplier, Apple's car-making plan can be officially launched.
it is estimated that from 224 to 225, "Apple? Car "will be officially unveiled at the Apple conference.
this year, Apple officially named its own chip products as apple? Silicon, in addition to the M1 chip for Mac computers unveiled this year, Apple is also developing various types of chips, including autopilot chips.
The media DigiTimes reported that Apple is currently working with TSMC to develop autonomous driving chips. The TSMC factory has previously won orders for Tesla autopilot chips, and it has already been "Apple? Car "is deployed. In a factory of TSMC, TSMC has cooperated with stmicroelectronics, an automobile chip supplier.
In addition, Hon Hai Group, which has cooperated with Apple for many years, recently announced its entry into the field of electric vehicles. In the "Hon Hai Technology Day" in October this year, Foxconn officially released the electric vehicle chassis and software platform "MIH? EV open platform ",and also announced that solid-state batteries will be launched in 224.
Since the beginning of this year, Hon Hai Group has reached an agreement with Taiwan Province automobile manufacturer Yulong Group and Fiat Chrysler (FCA) to form a joint venture company, which will cooperate in the fields of electric vehicles and car networking. Some analysts pointed out that Hon Hai Group may also want to win the "big customer" of Apple when it enters the automobile industry.
Some practitioners in the auto parts industry said that Apple "Apple? Car "mode will be similar to Tesla. In other words, if Apple builds a car, the source of parts will have a high coincidence with Tesla. At the same time, the supply of power battery plays a decisive role in many parts of vehicles.
According to media DigiTimes analysis, Apple, which has always had strong control over the supply chain, will speed up mergers and acquisitions in the next few years to ensure that the battery technology is leading and the supply will not be affected.
second, thousands of people have developed more than 1 patents? Apple's mysterious road to making cars will continue
The earliest news about making cars by Apple can be traced back to 214. In March of that year, after Apple released Carplay in-vehicle software at the Geneva Motor Show, it began to conduct substantial research on cars.
In p>215, some media reported that thousands of people were involved in the research and development of Apple's automobile project. At the same time, Apple has been encouraging Tesla employees to join Apple.
This year, Apple recruited outstanding talents from all major car companies around the world, including Tesla, Chrysler and Volkswagen Group. Among them, including Chris, former vice president of Tesla? Porritt。 At present, he also holds an important position in Apple's Titan project.
In addition, in 215, Apple hired talents related to autonomous driving from companies such as NVIDIA and Waymo to help Apple develop autonomous driving systems. Apple also "digs" at least three battery experts from Samsung, focusing on power battery technology.
In an interview that year, elon musk, CEO of Tesla, joked that Apple was Tesla's "grave" because all the people recruited by Apple were "fired" by Tesla.
In p>216, Apple's Titan project experienced a major transformation.
According to the foreign media "Wall Street Journal", in July of that year, Apple rehired Bob, the retired former senior vice president of Apple's hardware. Mansfield, and he will take over the Titan car project.
Bob? Mansfield led the team to design the MacBook during his tenure as senior vice president of Apple hardware. Air and MacBook? Pro and other products. Re-hiring Bob? After Mansfield, Apple also changed from the development of automobile hardware to the development of autonomous driving system.
Bob, former senior vice president of hardware at apple? Mansfield, now retired for the second time
In p>217, Apple was allowed to test self-driving cars on public roads in California.
according to foreign media Bloomberg, a Lexus RX45h that was driven out of Apple's headquarters building at that time was equipped with Velodyne's 64-line laser radar with the longest detection range, in addition to at least two radars and two cameras.
Apple's Lexus RX45h
Apple CEO Cook said in an interview with Bloomberg TV: "Apple is focusing on autopilot systems, but it may not necessarily develop real hardware products."
At that time, people speculated that Apple might want to launch a self-developed autonomous driving system and provide a ride-sharing service similar to Uber.
In p>218, Apple's test of autonomous driving was continuously upgraded and expanded.
Although Apple did not openly admit that it was testing the autopilot system, Apple ranked third in the number of autopilot licenses in California. In that year, * * * 7 vehicles were allowed to be tested on the road, which was second only to 175 vehicles from Cruise Company, a subsidiary of General Motors, and 88 vehicles from Waymo Company, a subsidiary of Alphabet.
In 219, the information about Apple's self-driving vehicles is gradually decreasing, and even the news that Apple has laid off 2 people in the self-driving department is revealed. The only heavy news is that Apple has acquired Drive.ai self-driving company, and it seems that Apple is keeping a lower profile in both the fields of self-driving and car building.
This week, according to foreign media Bloomberg, the head of Apple's autopilot department was replaced again by John, senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy. Giannandrea is the director, former director Bob? Mansfield officially retired.
Doug, Executive Director of Apple Titan Project? Field reports directly to John? Giannandrea reporting, John? Giannandrea reported directly to Apple CEO Cook that Apple's car-making project seems to be turning around.
John, senior vice president of Apple? Giannandrea
according to John? Giannandrea's resume, he joined Apple in 218 and served as the head of Google's machine learning and search team for the previous 8 years. At present, John? Giannandrea is responsible for Apple's AI technology strategy, machine learning and development of Core? ML and Siri technology.
At the same time, from the perspective of patent technology, Apple has been continuously applying for patents related to automobiles since 217, and has officially obtained more than 1 patents related to automobiles.
This shows that Apple has never given up its plan to build a car.
This article comes from the author of Chejia, car home, and does not represent car home's standpoint.