Amaya Toman In 2013, the Apple car saw the light of day. That you don't remember any car from the production of the apple company? It wasn't really an Apple car, but the result of a collaboration between Apple and Volkswagen.
Apple on track
The Volkswagen iBeetle was a car that was supposed to be "styled" with Apple - from the colors to the built-in iPhone docking station. But it also included, for example, special applications with the help of which users could control the car's functions. The iBeetle was introduced in 2013 at the Shanghai Auto Show. At the time, coincidentally, there was lively speculation about a possible Apple Car - that is, a smart vehicle produced by Apple.
But it was not the first time that the apple company wanted to sniff the automotive industry. In 1980, Apple sponsored Porsche at the Le Mans 953-hour endurance race. The car was then driven by Allan Moffat, Bobby Rahal and Bob Garretson. It was a Porsche 3 K800 with a six-cylinder engine with an output of XNUMX horsepower. Despite the decent equipment, the "first iCar" caught fire - due to a melted piston, the team had to withdraw from the Le Mans race, in later races it defended "only" third and seventh positions.
Apple integration
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What's next?
Today, experts see the iBeetle as a wasted opportunity. However, Apple's interest in the automotive industry still persists - as evidenced by the development of the CarPlay platform, for example. Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed in one of his interviews that his company deals with autonomous systems and artificial intelligence. The self-driving car from Apple was intensively discussed in 2014, when the apple company hired a number of new experts to deal with the relevant technology, but a little later the "Apple Car team" was disbanded. But Apple's plans are certainly still very ambitious and we can only be surprised by what result they will bring.
