Apple Car leak claims iCar is coming in 2022 — not so fast

Apple Motorcar leak claims iCar is coming in 2021 — not so fast

(Image credit: YouTube/AutoEvolution)

Update: A new Apple Car written report says that Apple is targeting 2024 for the release engagement, and that it volition accept a side by side-level bombardment.

"Apple Car….haven't heard that name in years," might be something a grizzled tech enthusiast would say as news that Cupertino's cocky-driving auto is years ahead of schedule reaches their ears.

Rumors of an Apple-developed car take emerged afresh, thanks to Taiwanese publication Economic Daily News. That study claims executives at Taiwanese manufacturers tipped it off about an Apple Car being ready in the third quarter of 2021 — plainly two years alee of schedule.

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Now we propose you take this with a carload of skepticism and a generous seasoning of your finest salt of uncertainty, as a 2021 release of an Apple car is some very dubious sounding news.

Over the by few years, rumors have been bubbles away effectually Apple's piece of work on a driverless car. In 2017 Apple was granted a let to test a self-driving organization in California. And Lexus automobiles, supposedly with Apple LiDAR equipment, were seen on California'south roads in the aforementioned year.

Meanwhile, Apple oracle and analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has previously said an Apple tree Car will exist released between 2023 and 2025. While this is far from incommunicable, the idea that an Apple tree Auto will be released in some 12 months time, when we've seen barely any recent leaks near it, has usa raising a serious eyebrow.

First off, testing a motorcar in clandestine is very difficult. This is something established auto makers struggle with, even when testing their cars at locked downwards proving grounds. And given how much was leaked alee of the launch of the iPhone 12, AirPods Max and MacBook Air M1 this yr, nosotros'd exist highly skeptical that Apple would go along an in-business firm automobile from being leaked at all.

Even if Apple has managed to proceed such a machine nether wraps, car making is a long process full of different stages of development just to get to a prototype. Then there's establishing production lines and going through safety checks and approval. Apple has the money to fund all of this, but to release a motorcar adjacent year still seems highly doubtful. At all-time we could expect to see a tease of what to expect from... let's call it an iCar.

Still, there'due south a practiced take chances that an Apple Machine isn't going to exist a vehicle designed and manufactured past Apple tree, but rather a cocky-driving arrangement that Apple will provide to car makers for use in their driverless vehicles.

Apple already makes use of LiDAR tech in the iPhone 12 Pro and iPad Pro, and has all-encompassing experience in estimator vision, image signal processing and smart software — from Siri to the semantic rendering used in modern iPhone cameras. And then it's not a huge leap to see information technology accept that tech and apply it to a driverless auto system.

Again, though, it's quite a stride upwardly from making an iPhone to an iCar. And many companies that have tried their hand at auto making have failed. Vacuum cleaner visitor Dyson had a go at making an electrical car simply scrapped its plans after it plant that the car wasn't commercially viable. Tesla is the merely real new player that's managed to enter the automotive world and provide cars at scale and remain afloat, though information technology'south only started turning in a steady profit this year and belatedly 2019.

In curt, if an Apple Car is on the road at the end of next year, we'd buy a hat, sauté information technology with some fava beans and eat it, all washed down with a nice chianti. That's not to say 2021 won't exist an interesting year for Apple, every bit we're expecting the iPhone 13 and upgraded iPads — simply we don't expect to encounter Tim Cook behind the wheel of an Apple-branded car at whatsoever press events on the well-nigh horizon.

Roland Moore-Colyer is U.Yard. Editor at Tom'southward Guide with a focus on news, features and opinion articles. He often writes nigh gaming, phones, laptops and other bits of hardware; he's also got an involvement in cars. When not at his desk Roland tin be plant wandering effectually London, oft with a await of curiosity on his face.