Carla Swisher, hailed as the "most influential technology journalist" in Silicon Valley, released the latest podcast with Apple CEO Cook on Monday, local time, discussing many issues of concern to technology and capital markets. The conversation between two of them about self-driving cars has once again sparked speculation about "Apple-made cars."
Asked about the acquisition of self-driving start-ups Drive AI and Musk last year, Cook said that while he had full respect and respect for Tesla and Musk's achievements, he had never communicated with Musk, although they had been recommended to Apple to buy Tesla. The incredible thing about Tesla is not only that he has taken the lead in the field of electric cars, but that he has stayed in that position for such a long time.
When talking about Apple's layout in related areas, Cook said that "it is difficult to give specific details" while stressing that automated (autonomy) itself is a core technology. "to take a step back, a car is a machine in many ways, and the same is true of self-driving cars. You can do a lot of things in terms of automation, and then we'll see what Apple can do, "Cook stressed in an interview." Apple will study a lot of things internally, and a lot of research will never be made public one day. But I'm not saying that automation technology is the same.
When Mr Swisher asked Mr Cook whether Apple was "building cars" or "in-car technology", Mr Cook said he could not answer the question, adding that Apple likes to integrate hardware, software and services and find their intersection. That's where magic takes place, and the company is happy to have core technology related to this field.
Although Apple has never publicly acknowledged its car-building plans, a series of moves by the company are enough to show that it is exploring this area. In 2018, Apple signed Doug Field, a former Tesla senior vice president of engineering. Michael Schwekutsch, another former Tesla senior vice president of engineering, is serving as the senior engineering director of Apple's special projects team. Recently, there was also news that Apple and Kia were talking about contract manufacturing, but South Korean automakers later explicitly denied the rumor.
