Tim Cook announces the iPhone 11.
Source: Apple
Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted at the company’s work on autonomous vehicles, following recent reports that the company is in renewed talks to develop its own car.
“Autonomy in itself is a basic technology, in my opinion. If you take a step back, the car, in many ways, is a robot. An autonomous car is a robot. So there are a lot of things you can do with it. do And we’ll see what Apple does, “Cook said in an interview posted Monday with Kara Swisher on the podcast” Sway. “
“We investigate so many things internally. Many of them never see the light of day. I’m not saying they won’t,” Cook added.
When asked if Apple worked on the same car or on the technology of a car, Cook declined to comment.
“We love to integrate hardware, software and services and find the intersections of these because we believe this is where the magic is done. And that’s what we like to do. And we love to have the core technology that is there. around”. He said.
Apple was expected to enter the automotive business with its own vehicle or by selling its technology to other automakers, and made several moves indicating it planned to do so. Helping to strengthen its engineering ranks, the company acquired the start of Drive.ai autonomous vehicles in 2019.
An autonomous vehicle could pit the company against Tesla, which is developing its own autonomous driving functions. In 2018, Apple re-hired Doug Field, then Tesla’s senior vice president of engineering, to work presumably on cars with automatic driving. Apple has also incorporated several former Tesla employees, including former Tesla vice president of engineering Michael Schwekutsch, now senior director of engineering for Apple’s Special Projects Group.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk had even said last year that he once tried to start talks to sell the company to Apple, but Cook refused to hold a meeting.
“You know, I’ve never talked to Elon, although I have a great admiration and respect for the company he’s built. I think Tesla has done an incredible job not only establishing leadership, but maintaining leadership for such a long period of time. time in EV space. So I thank them very much, “Cook told Swisher.
Most recently, CNBC reported that Apple was about to finalize an agreement with Hyundai-Kia to manufacture an Apple-branded autonomous electric vehicle at Kia’s assembly plant in West Point, Georgia. However, car manufacturers later returned to the claims.
Listen to the full interview with Tim Cook here.
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