Apple Car: South Korean carmakers reportedly compete for the main partner role, Apple surveys

The Apple Car is still unannounced, but rumors and reports about Apple’s project for a self-driving vehicle have been appearing for quite some time now. Another curious report states that Apple is looking to South Korean firms to pick a supplier for parts for the vehicle, reports AppleInsider. Apple is reportedly expected to choose the main manufacturer for the Apple Car by the end of this year.

South Korean firms reportedly competing to supply parts for the Apple Car

A recent claim by Wedbush stated that by the end of the year, Apple will select its main partner for the self-driving vehicle project, and now a new industry report is corroborating that, with one difference. The Wedbush one states an announcement of the partner will be made, but this newer report states that Apple will only make a selection, but won’t announce it by the end of 2022. According to Korea IT News, once the main partner for the Apple Car is selected, there will be a start of full-scale development. Apple executives have been reportedly visiting South Korean companies twice already, discussing possible plans for the Apple Car.

But this is not the only info the publication has shared in the new report. It also says Apple has been in discussions with one major manufacturer but is checking out several South Korean electronics firms as well.

Korea IT News also says that multiple firms have joined in a so-called “Task Force” intending to get a piece of that Apple Car business. Well, this info is based on unspecified sources from the car parts industry, so we have to take it with a grain of salt. Of course, Apple demands some secrecy and reportedly, some firms don’t like working like that and are backing off.

The unnamed source also stated that if the information is leaked from one of these companies, the company will be removed from the list with supplier candidates. The secrecy is handled very carefully, according to the source. They also said some parts companies don’t even consider becoming Apple partners because of the strict security.

Of course, the level of secrecy that the source is talking about doesn’t surprise us too much. After all, that’s Apple that we’re talking about, and probably the Apple Car is being positioned as the “one more thing” of the company. Well, maybe the Apple AR glasses will come before that, but who knows?

Here’s how the Apple Car might look like

These images are newly-created renders that we reported on earlier, coming from British car leasing firm Vanarama, and the images above are based on patents filed by Apple plus previously released Apple devices.

It is, indeed, a very early stage to know for sure if the Apple Car will look anything like the images shown above, but they look cool, don’t you agree?

Apple Car project executive list has been constantly changing recently

There have been many people leaving and joining the supposed Apple Car project in recent months. Some of its key engineers have been leaving to join air taxi startup companies, while other ex-Tesla engineers have joined to take their place. Apple has also hired some key engineers in 2021. For example, Urlich Kranz was hired this year, who previously led self-driving car company Canoo and electric vehicle development at BMW, as well as Christopher “CJ” Moore, who was a self-driving software director over at Tesla.

Kevin Lynch, who oversaw the Apple Watch and health software, took over the car project after Doug Field left the company. Reportedly, he is trying to give the Car project a clearer vision and assign it more urgency, including trying to push its launch date to as early as 2025.