While Apple is yet to admit that it is working on "Project Titan," an electric car, which will be partially autonomous, recent rumors suggest that the Cupertino tech titan would require partnering with a reputed automobile major help it realize it ambitions. A partnership is essential for Apple so that it can have a smooth sailing through the complicated as well as exclusive universe of automobile manufacturing.
Unfortunately for the Cupertino tech titan, the "Project Titan' suffered a major setback as automobile giants BMW and Daimler discontinued negotiations with Apple over a collaboration for the purported car, Handelsblatt, a German business publication reported.
Quoting industry sources," Handelsblatt reported that the two automakers discontinued the negotiations following disagreements regarding control as well as data. According to the report, while Apple insisted the purported car is built closely into its patented cloud software, the German automobile manufacturers demanded customer data protection be the key aspect of their future approach.
Meanwhile, negotiations with BMW fell apart in 2015, while talks with Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler collapsed as recently as on Wednesday last. Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook visited BMW's headquarters in Munich, while senior Apple executives also visited Daimler's factory in Leipzig to explore how the company manufactured its i3 electric car. Surprisingly, talks between Apple and BMW ended soon after.
As of now, Magna, the Canadian-Austrian-based automotive contract manufacturer, is still in the race for manufacturing Apple's dream car. In fact, Apple is said to have already developed a "secret lab" in Berlin, where the Cupertino-headquartered tech giant has reportedly poached a small team of 15-20 engineers from several German car companies, The Verge reported.
Aside from hiring German automobile engineers, Apple is also said to be looking for executives from car manufacturers in the United States. According to reports, Apple has recently hired Chris Porritt, former vice-president of Tesla's vehicle engineering. Porritt joins Apple after four months since Steve Zadesky, the head of Project Titan, left the company.
