Taiwan Rumor Says Apple Car Will Be Released in September

It's known that Apple has been working on some type of autonomous, electric vehicle just as long as the other tech and auto companies were, as far back as 2015, at least. It certainly seemed like it was on the backburner as other companies seemed to be much further ahead, but now credible rumors are saying that the Apple Car will be released in September.

History of the Apple Car

2015 is just the year it was confirmed that there was an Apple Car in the works. Assumably, the company was working on something of the sort before that, when it was revealed it was referred to as "Project Titan."

Apple has even been doing road testing. However, what they were testing was not a new autonomous car - it was legacy cars retrofitted with the Apple autonomous system.

Tim Cook, the Apple CEO, has said previously that he thinks that the intersection of electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and ride-sharing was an interesting place to be. This leaves the question of what type of car the Apple Car will be, whether it will be a personal vehicle or a ride-sharing vehicle. Since known testing was on legacy cars, it's also not known if the project has moved on to a full car or whether it will be just an autonomous system that will be used in other cars.

New Rumors

The Chinese-language The Economic Daily News published news that was reported by MacDailyNews. It mentioned "Taiwanese auto parts factories, such as Heda (1536), BizLink-KY, Heqin, and Tomita," then further said, "The key supply chain in Taiwan confirmed that Apple expects to release the Apple Car in September next year, at least two years earlier than the original plan."

Just like there are many people who are fearful of trusting the coronavirus vaccine that was rushed out, please are going to feel similarly about shaving two years off the timeline for an autonomous car.

Of note here is the movement of factories in Taiwan. New auto parts factories are being built, existing ones are being relocated, and new production lines are being added to existing factories. The supply chain is saying all the movement is for the Apple Car.

While there are many questions surrounding the truthfulness of the timeline and whether Apple is looking at an entire car or a system that will go in other cars, it's believed that Apple did at least order parts from the Taiwanese auto parts manufacturers. And that is enough of a development on its own.

We had predicted that autonomous cars would get smarter in 2020, and if the Apple Car truly is ready to hit the road, it seems we were right.