Tesla’s Elon Musk said that Apple developing an electric car is an “open secret” in the tech world in an interview with the BBC on Jan. 11.
“We encourage more participation by whoever-it-is to create electric vehicles. It’s quite hard to do. But I think companies like Apple will probably make a compelling electric car. It seems like the obvious thing to do…” Musk said.
Although at first he tries not to answer the question directly, Musk eventually says that he believes that Apple is working on an autonomous car, based primarily on the people they’ve hired with experience in that particular field.
Apple has reportedly hired many Tesla employees, and Google recently hired a high-profile software engineer who had worked on Tesla’s autonomous cars.
Musk said Tesla is open to the idea of “helping other companies to make electric cars as well” as the field widens. He also discussed the upcoming Model 3 and Tesla’s effort to makes its third-generation cars more affordable in order to reach more customers.
He predicts that in as soon as 10 years, people will only drive if they choose to do so, because of the ubiquity of autonomous cars. Tesla’s own preliminary Autopilot feature allows the cars to keep in their lanes, adjust speed, and change lanes on highways without human control. Over the weekend, Tesla released the Summon beta, which allows the Model S and Model X to park itself in a garage or locate and drive to its owner.
Tesla is still operating at a loss at the moment, while companies like Faraday Future and Chevrolet are also vying for the top spot in electric vehicles.
(Via BBC.)
