Apple previously was known to have secretly working on an autonomous car under the codename “Project Titan”. So far nothing much has come out of it and rumours have been flying about that Apple did abandon plans to build their own car and only focus on self-driving technology instead. Now recently, Yicai Global broke the news that Apple is secretly working with Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL), a battery manufacturer based out of China. That seems to point that those batteries are actually battery technology meant for cars and it seems to lead people to believe that Apple still hasn’t completely abandoned plans to build their own car.
In the report, a source was saying that the two companies are working together in the field of batteries based on a confidentiality agreement. Apple has been known to work with Amperex Technology Ltd who supplies both Apple and Samsung batteries for their mobile phones. Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) is a spin-off and focuses on car batteries.
“If Apple is working with CATL on a battery, the possibility that Apple will continue to make cars cannot be ruled out as one of the core components of self-driving electric cars is the battery,” CCID Consulting’s New Energy Director Wu Hui told Yicai Global.
This definitely raises suspicions if Apple were still trying to dabble into building their own cars and perhaps even fully electric cars thanks to their partnership with CATL. Perhaps they haven’t completely given up hope to break into that market.
Apple’s foray into the car industry so far has been with their CarPlay technology which is slowly gaining popularity together with Android Auto as the technology auto manufacturers employ for their cars.
Recently in an interview with Bloomberg, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple said that they were focusing on autonomous systems and that self-driving technology is currently one of the hardest AI projects to work on. Apple has been testing out their self-driving technology in several states in the US.
