Update: Apple has reportedly brought Ford veteran Desi Ujkashevic on board, suggesting Apple Car development might be back on track.
The Apple Car is something of a mystery, and all we know about the vehicle comes from rumors and leaks from supposed inside sources. The latest piece of information doesn’t paint a particularly positive picture.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that the Apple Car project team “has been dissolved for some time”. This seems to run counter to just about everything we’ve heard. In fact, Kuo claims that Apple will need to reorganize the team within the next six months if it wants the car to arrive in 2025.
The Apple Car project team has been dissolved for some time. The reorganization within the next three to six months is necessary to achieve the goal of mass production by 2025.March 15, 2022
Everything else we’ve heard about the Apple Car in recent months has said Apple is actively engaging with the project to get the first Apple Cars out on the streets. In fact, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, a prominent source for inside Apple news, claimed in November that the company had accelerated the project.
Apple reportedly had decided to take matters into its own hands, after being burned one too many times by existing automakers. Last we heard it was courting South Korean firms to provide all the parts Apple needs to build an electric car and avoid the delays that stemmed from attempting to partner with an established car maker.
News of this also coincided with the loss of project-head Doug Field, who left the company to work for Ford. Apple then reportedly put VP of technology Kevin Lynch in charge of the project, taking over teams working on hardware, software and self-driving car tech.
While transitions of power rarely come without any hurdles, the suggestion that Apple could have promptly dissolved the Apple Car teams shortly afterwards doesn’t make a whole lot of sense from the outside. However, considering we’re not privy to the inner workings at Apple Car HQ, it’s impossible to say for sure.
Kuo has made a bunch of strange predictions in recent weeks. Most recently he claimed that Apple’s A16 Bionic chip would only be available in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. Kup also declared that the 2022 MacBook Air would come with the original M1 chip, rather than the upcoming M2 upgrade. This is despite rumors before and after his claim reaffirming that the laptop would indeed come with an M2 chip.
Kuo also said that he believes the 2022 Mac mini refresh would keep the same design as before — contrary to reports from multiple other leakers.
It’s impossible to say who’s right, and it’ll stay that way until Apple actually makes some official product announcements. Apple Track gives Kuo a 72.5% accuracy rate, which means he usually knows what he’s talking about — even if he’s making some strange predictions.
Is he right about the Apple Car’s dissolved development team? That’s not a question we can answer ourselves. However, it doesn't make sense for Apple to dissolve the Apple Car team if it’s still actively working on the project.
We’re just going to have to wait and see what happens. And considering the Apple Car’s rumored 2025 launch date, we’re going to have to wait a while.
