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The Apple electric car project, codenamed "Titan", is an electric car project allegedly undergoing research and development by Apple Inc. It is rumored a substantial number of Apple employees are working on this project. The project was rumored to be approved by Apple CEO Tim Cook in late 2014 and assigned to Vice President Steve Zadesky, a former Ford engineer as project in-charge. For the project, Apple was rumored to have hired Johann Jungwirth, the former-president and chief executive of Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America, as well as at least one transmission engineer. To date, Apple has yet to comment on any plans to make an electric car. Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs had plans to design and build a car, according to Apple board member and J. Crew Group CEO Mickey Drexler, who said that discussions about the concept surfaced around the time that Tesla Motors debuted its first car. Former Apple iPod Senior VP Tony Fadell confirmed that Steve Jobs was interested in an Apple car back in 2008, shortly after the original iPhone was introduced.〔http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-04/steve-jobs-considered-building-an-apple-car-in-2008〕 Reports indicate that the company has been offering incentives to Tesla employees to join Apple. ''The Wall Street Journal'' reports that the product would resemble more of a minivan than a car,〔 and ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' says that production could start as soon as 2020. In May 2015, Apple investor tycoon Carl Icahn stated that Apple will enter the automobile market in 2020 with a unique car, as "the ultimate mobile device". In August 2015, ''The Guardian'' reported that Apple were meeting with officials from GoMentum Station,〔 a testing ground for connected and autonomous vehicles at the former Concord Naval Weapons Station in Concord, California.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Vision - GoMentum Station )〕 In September 2015, there were reports that Apple were meeting with self-driving car experts from the California Department of Motor Vehicles.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=One big sign the Apple self-driving car is closer than we thought )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Apple’s meeting with California DMV suggests a driverless car could be on the way )〕 According to ''The Wall Street Journal'', it will be a battery electric vehicle, initially lacking full autonomous driving capability, with a possible unveiling around 2019. In October 2015, at the Wall Street Journal’s WSJDLive conference at The Montage resort in Laguna Beach, California, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated about the car industry that: “It would seem like there will be massive change in that industry, massive change. You may not agree with that. That’s what I think...“We’ll see what we do in the future. I do think that the industry is at an inflection point for massive change.” Cook enumerated ways that the modern descendants of the Ford Model T would be shaken to the very chassis — the growing importance of software in the car of the future, the rise of autonomous vehicles, and the shift from an internal combustion engine to electrification. In November 2015, various websites reported that suspected Apple front SixtyEight Research had attended an auto body conference in Europe.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Shadowy group linked to Apple's 'Project Titan' spotted at auto industry conference )〕 Also in November 2015, after unknown EV startup Faraday Future announced a $1 billion U.S. factory project,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=A mysterious electric-car startup is building a $1 billion factory in California )〕 some speculated that it might actually be a front for Apple's secret car project. == List of names working on the unconfirmed project == * Jamie Carlson, an engineer on Tesla's Autopilot self-driving car program, and before that he worked on automotive vision systems for Michigan-based supplier Gentex Corp. * Megan McClain, a former Volkswagen AG engineer with expertise in automated driving.〔 * Vinay Palakkode, a graduate researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, a hub of automated driving research.〔 * Xianqiao Tong, an engineer who developed computer vision software for driver assistance systems at microchip maker Nvidia Corp NVDA.O.〔 * Paul Furgale, former deputy director of the Autonomous Systems Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.〔 * Sanjai Massey, an engineer with experience in developing connected and automated vehicles at Ford and several suppliers.〔 * Stefan Weber, a former Bosch engineer with experience in video-based driver assistance systems.〔 * Lech Szumilas, a former Delphi research scientist with expertise in computer vision and object detection.〔 * Doug Betts, former global quality leader at Fiat Chrysler. * Johann Jungwirth, former head of research and development at Mercedes〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Apple Electric Car Steers Closer to Reality )〕 - left for VW in Nov. 2015〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=VW recruits exec linked to Apple electric car project )〕 * Mujeeb Ijaz, a former Ford Motor Co. engineer, who founded A123 Systems's Venture Technologies division, which focused on materials research, electrical battery cell product development and advanced concepts (who helped recruited four to five staff researchers from A123, a battery technology company)〔 * Nancy Sun, formerly vice president of electrical engineering at electric motorcycle company Mission Motors in San Francisco * Mark Sherwood, formerly director of powertrain systems engineering at Mission Motors〔 * Eyal Cohen, formerly vice president of software and electrical engineering at Mission Motors〔 * Jonathan Cohen, former director of Nvidia's deep learning software Nvidia uses deep learning in its Nvidia Drive PX platform, which is used in driver assistance systems.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=NVIDIA DRIVE™ PX )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Apple electric car project」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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