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Apple has been busy employing for Project Titan, but its latest hire could be the most significant. A new report from Electrek suggests that Apple has hired Chris Porritt, former vice president of vehicle engineering for Tesla and former chief engineer for Aston Martin. The report, carried out in conjunction with 9to5Mac, actually states that Porritt will be working on "special projects", but Apple isn’t fooling anyone.

When Porritt joins, he’ll be the most senior member on the Apple Car team, so he could well be leading the project – and his CV implies he should. In the 1990s, Porritt worked for Aston Martin as a principal engineer in vehicle dynamics, and he was then chief engineer until 2013. After that, he made the jump to America to work for Tesla.

Once again, the move shows Apple isn’t taking the car industry lightly. Only yesterday we discovered it's set up an office in Germany – the heart of the automotive industry – and this move shows that Apple is keen to AirDrop in expertise.

Of course, one person who’ll be looking at the move is Elon Musk. Last year Musk called Apple’s Project Titan a "Tesla Graveyard", so it’ll be interesting to see what he makes of the latest hire.

Apple Car: Introduction

The Apple Car is no longer a myth. The latest rumours suggest Project Titan will be released in 2019, and could feature some of the best in-car software we’ve ever seen. As you’d expect, the Apple Car should be all-electric, but apart from that, we still know very little about it. However, we're starting to hear more and more rumours about Project Titan – partly because of the sheer amount of people involved. Here are all the rumours, leaks and news about Project Titan, analysed and in one place.

Apple Car gets a branch in Berlin

According to a report by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Apple has set up shop in the heart of Berlin, and has already hired between 15 and 20 employees to work at its latest branch of Project Titan. The report goes on to say that most of those employees were "progressive thinkers" who were stifled at their previous jobs – exactly the sort of thinkers the Apple Car might need.

What I find interesting is the project’s location – if it’s true of course. Germany is still the heart of the automotive industry, so the fact Apple is going there as well as Silicon Valley shows it understands the difficulties of taking on the car market, and that any experience and expertise it can get will help.

Tim Cook confirms Apple is looking at the car market

In a February interview with Fortune Apple CEO Tim Cook refused to deny or confirm the existence of the Apple Car, but did *sort of* confirm the existence of Project Titan. After skirting around the issue for most of the interview, Fortune understandably asked Cook about Apple’s hiring of automotive engineers, and he had the following to say:

“The great thing about being here is we’re curious people. We explore technologies, and we explore products. And we’re always thinking about ways that Apple can make great products that people love, that help them in some way. And we don’t go into very many categories, as you know. We edit very much. We talk about a lot of things and do fewer. We debate many things and do a lot fewer.” While Tim Cook acknowledges the hiring of several key people, he claims Project Titan is just an investigation at this stage.

“Part of exploring technologies and picking the right one is becoming so familiar with it, you can see ways that it can be used. And for us, we’ve never been about being first. We’ve been about being best. So we explore many different things, many different technologies. And at first we might not know what product it might wind up in,” says Cook.

“And then later we’ll see that really cool technology enables maybe things that we’re doing today to take on something bigger, maybe something new. But once we start spending gobs of money – like when we start spending on tooling and things like that – we’re committed.”

While it’s not the definitive YES answer we were looking for, Cook’s response confirms Apple is looking at entering the vehicle market, and with the world’s of cars and tech continuing to merge, this seems very likely.

Daimler CEO says Project Titan already underway

Traditional automotive manufacturers seem to view cars by Apple and Google with a combination of interest, fear and arrogance, but a new report suggests how things have changed. After a trip to unspecified companies in Silicon Valley, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said the automotive efforts of tech companies were much more advanced than he previously thought.

"Our impression was that these companies can do more and know more than we had previously assumed," Zetsche told the German paper Welt am Sonntag. "At the same time, they have more respect for our achievements than we thought."

Zetsche hasn't always held this attitude, so his change in opinion could be a direct result of his visit. It's possible that the Daimler CEO was in Silicon Valley looking to build relationships for his own car's in-car tech – or because he was offering the services of Daimler to companies such as Apple and Google. Although tech companies might have the tech know-how and vision to create an electric car, they currently lack the experience or scale of huge car companies such as Daimler. We've already heard rumours that Apple wants to partner with BMW for the Apple Car, but perhaps the Californian company could partner with Daimler instead. 

Steve Wozniak thinks Apple Car makes sense for Apple

Steve Wozniak may have left Apple more than two decades ago, but he’s still got some interesting views about his former employer – and its new projects. In a Reddit AMA last night, Wozniak gave his thoughts on everything from the Apple Watch to the FBI – but he also had some interesting views about the electric cars

In a lengthy answer to one user, Wozniak described how the automotive is a perfect fit for Apple because it fuses high returns with the opportunity to improve people’s lives. “So the car market makes total sense to me for Apple,” Wozniak said. “But the important thing is that I hope if they get off on a product.” Wozniak goes on to say that if the Apple Car isn’t “insanely great” then the company “should drop it and start over”.

He continues: “Well, I think that's good if Apple says 'We're not making the product that is going to stimulate all of humanity, that's not our business as Apple. We don't want to just be another electric car or self-driving car,' or whatever. So I'm really for that in Apple.”

Apple Car: Release date

Interestingly, the release date is one of the few things we do know about the Apple Car. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Apple will be launching the car in 2019.

The news comes after earlier reports of a huge expansion of Apple’s automotive division. The Project Titan team entrusted with developing the Apple Car originally stood at 600 staff, but the WSJ report suggests this figure is set to triple to 1,800. If Apple does plan to release a car in 2019, logic dictates that they’d need more than 600 people – for example, Ford has 166,000 employees and already knows how to make a car.

Apple Car at a glance

Apple Car: Design

Very little is known about the Apple Car itself, but initial rumours suggest the first Apple Car will resemble a minivan.

Rumours also suggest that Apple may utilise the expertise of BMW to make its car. After Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly visited BMW’s factory in Leipzig last year, it’s looking more and more likely that the Apple Car will be a joint project between the two companies.

Although Apple has expertise in software and tech, building a car is an entirely different proposition, and it may need support.

If Apple does collaborate with BMW, we think it will use the progressive BMWi series as a base. Already one of the best electric cars on the road, the BMWi series already enjoys a good relationship with Apple – its Apple Watch app was one of the first to take advantage of watchOS 2.  

Apple Car: Interior

We don’t know much about the other aspects of the car, but it’s likely to continue the design language already seen on the iPad Pro, Apple Watch and MacBook. That means the Apple Car should have clean lines, utilitarian design and the attention to detail shown in Jonathan Ive’s existing Apple products.

It’s almost certain that the Apple Car will feature an advanced version of CarPlay too, but, interestingly, reports already suggest that the Apple Car will not be autonomous. Instead, Apple is tipped to add driverless features to its later vehicles.

Apple Car: Drivetrain

We expect the Apple Car to be powered purely by electricity. Apple has already spent years dealing with issues such as lithium-ion battery life, connectivity issues and power management – and its electric car will surely benefit from that experience.

With the likes of Tesla already showing that electric cars are viable, we’d expect Apple to enter the market with an even greater game changer – much like they did in the tablet market with the iPad. An electric vehicle will need that expertise. Software will also be a key issue, but one you’d expect Apple to nail.

Confirmation?

Although we still don’t have official confirmation that it exists, least year Apple CEO Tim Cook gave the biggest hint yet that the company is working on its own car. Cook didn’t specifically mention the Apple Car – or its code name “Project Titan” – but his comments explain why Apple has finally decided to get into the car market. "It would seem like there will be massive change in that industry, massive change," said the Apple CEO. “You may not agree with that. That’s what I think. When I look at the automobile, what I see is that software becomes an increasingly important part of the car of the future,” he continued. "You see that autonomous driving becomes much more important."

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