Hyundai revises statement on Apple car production

Automaker Hyundai revised its statement twice in several hours on a tie-up with Apple for developing self-driving cars.

Following a report by Bloomberg that Apple will take at least five years to launch a self-driving car, Hyundai released a statement to CNBC that it is one of the several global automakers to be in discussions with Apple. The Economic Daily claims that Apple is considering to work with Hyundai to manufacture the Apple car and develop the batteries.

Hours later, Hyundai revised its statement that it has been "receiving requests for potential cooperation from various companies regarding development of autonomous EVs".

The Bloomberg report adds that Apple is continuing its research on developing a self-driving car system for a third-party car maker, and may eventually opt for that instead of building the Apple car.

Apple has been rumoured to be working on a self-driving car or self-driving technology since 2015. It registered three top-level domain names which are apple.car, apple.cars, and apple.auto. In 2016, there were reports that Apple was working with BMW/Mini maker Magna to build the Apple car.

Apple hired former Telsa VP and Aston Martin Chief Engineer to work on "special projects". The company also started researching on methods to charge electric cars, and invested US$1 billion (S$1.3 billion) in Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing.

ALSO READ: Apple analyst Kuo says Apple car arriving in 2025 at the earliest

It gained approval to test self-driving car software in California and Silicon Valley roads four years ago. Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed in a 2017 interview that the company is "focusing on autonomous systems" and sees self-driving technology "as the mother of all AI projects".

It filed a patent for an "Adaptive vehicle augmented reality display using stereographic imagery" and expanded its fleet of autonomous vehicles in 2018. Apple also poached Jamie Waydo , a senior engineer from Google's Waymo self-driving car team.

A Reuters report last month claims that production of the Apple car could commence as early as 2024 , and that the car will feature the "next-level" battery technology. However, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says the Apple car is likely to arrive in 2025 at the earliest.

This article was first published in Hardware Zone.