Tim Cook at the Apple Event
Source: Apple
An closely watched Apple analyst warns that investors should be cautious about a report that the iPhone maker plans to produce a standalone car in 2024.
Last week’s Reuters report sent shares of companies manufacturing parts for autonomous cars, such as lidar sensors, soaring. But the hype was based solely on speculation that some of these companies could supply parts for Apple’s car, TFI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo warned in a note this weekend.
Kuo has established itself to accurately unveil Apple’s product launch plans and is closely following Apple’s supply chain.
“We believe the current actions of the Apple car concept are just market speculation and do not involve real Apple vehicle suppliers,” Kuo said. “We also believe that because the technical specifications of the EV / autonomous car are still evolving, it’s too early to talk about the final specifications of the Apple car.”
Kuo said the market is “too bullish” on the Apple car and wouldn’t be surprised if the Apple car isn’t launched until 2028 or later. The first thing he believes could hit the market is in 2025. Kuo also suggested that Apple might be too far behind in artificial intelligence to launch a competitive autonomous car.
“If Apple Car wants to be successful in the future, the key success factor is big data / AI, not hardware,” he said. “One of our biggest concerns about Apple Research December 27, 2020 2 Apple Car is that when Apple Car launches, current autonomous car brands will have accumulated at least five years of massive data and will be conducive to deep learning How does Apple, which is coming back, overcome this lag? “
Apple has kept its big car vision relatively quiet. But the company has been testing autopilot technology for a few years, and CEO Tim Cook has said he sees the technology as a way to bolster Apple’s artificial intelligence systems.
Other analysts have been as skeptical as Kuo.
“Apple carries out R&D in many areas and, although we are not surprised to hear the media once again discuss Project Titan for cars, we are very skeptical that Apple will produce a car, as the profitability of the automotive sector it’s much lower, ”Jim, Citi Suva analyst wrote in a note last week.