With MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones having seen better days, it looks like Apple may be trying their luck in a new industry: the electric automobile industry.
Back in 2015, there were rumors that Apple was planning on designing its own electric car to compete with Tesla. This never came to pass, but a recent hiring of a former Tesla employee has sparked those rumors again.
Andrew Kim was a senior engineer for Tesla for the past two years, and as you can see from his LinkedIn page, is now a designer for Apple. What exactly he is designing for Apple remains to be seen, but considering the fact that he was involved in the design of the Tesla Roadster v2, Model S, Model X, Semi, and Model 3, you can probably take an educated guess. Steve Jobs himself stated years ago that Apple was interested in building a car. Right now, interest in Apple products is at a very low point; their business in China is in serious danger of being irrevocably ruined, and profits are sinking. There’d no better time than now to find another industry to sink their teeth into.
What’s most interesting is how much Andrew Kim knows, and how this will affect Apple’s ability to build a car, as well as how long it would take for Apple to introduce a prototype. Tesla’s Model 3 is a marvel of design and can be built in around 40 steps, whereas most cars of the same size typically take more than 100 steps to create. If Andrew Kim can manage to replicate this efficiency for Apple’s own automotive aspirations, then Apple cars may be here sooner rather than later.
