Apple is reportedly setting up a 'car lab' in Berlin

Apple is
reportedly
setting up a 'car
lab' in Berlin
ICAR / 19 APRIL 16

Apple is a company steeped in
secrecy, but perhaps nothing more
than its rumoured "iCar". Officially
dubbed Project Titan, the Cupertino
tech giant's plans to enter the electric
vehicle market are – seemingly –
moving ahead.
According to reports by Germany's
Frankfurter Allgemeine , Apple is to set
up a dedicated "car lab" in Berlin. The
facility is intended to tap into key
talent from the country's automotive
industry, with "15 to 20" researchers
on site to "tinker" with ideas.
The lab will also explore more
mundane aspects of bringing a car to
market, such as who Apple might
partner with in the country – a factor
that could impact Europe-wide
production or distribution – which
regulations would need to be adhered
to, and evaluating how far ahead its
competitors are.
Quite what the iCar will actually be
(an electric car, taking on Tesla? An
autonomous vehicle to rival Google's?
Or something inbetween?) remains a
mystery, although the company may
have ambitious plans, reportedly
looking for recruits who have been
held back in previous roles for ideas
that may have been seen as 'too
progressive'.
There's evidence to back this up, too.
Last Autumn, Apple appeared to go in
a hiring spree specifically targeting
specialists in the vehicle industry. As
reported by Reuters at the time,
significant figures included Jamie
Carlson; previously a senior engineer
at Tesla; Megan McClain, a
Volkswagon engineer focused on
automated vehicles; Vinay Palakkode,
a graduate researcher in automated
vehicles from Carnegie Mellon
University; and Xianqiao Tong, who
came from Nvidia after developing
computer vision software for driver
assistance systems.