Apple Car rumor hits the right checkboxes


Wall Street Journal:

The Cupertino, Calif., company has several hundred employees working secretly toward creating an Apple-branded electric vehicle, according to people familiar with the matter. The project, code-named "Titan," initially is working on the design of a vehicle that resembles a minivan, one of the people said.

This rumor comes on the heels of spotted Apple-leased vans with weird camera rigs on top. This then covers the basic check boxes of an Apple rumor: Evidence of Apple working on something, staffing reports from those familiar, and an alleged internal code name. Sprinkle on wealthy execs with lots of money buying fancy cars = enthusiasts, and you've got yourself a certified Apple rumor.

Who knows, but to me it doesn't pass the smell test for a major new product initiative. Skunkworks, sure, but that might be a lot of people for a pet project just to see where it takes you.

More likely, I'd guess Apple is working on an auto-related technology, either to work with existing makers or as some kind of after-market product to consumers. Or, this could just be related to ongoing mapping/navigation improvements. Perhaps simply a retrofitted vehicle to make mapping better and cheaper.