You’ll never imagine what the Apple Car could have looked like
The project AppleCar was cancelled, but after 10 billion dollars wasted, many are still wondering what it would have been like car of the apple (by the way, do you know what autonomous driving is?).
Did you imagine a modern-looking sedan, with sleek lines and perhaps references to Tesla? Not at all: let us reveal some details Mark Gurmanwho told some background on the vehicle also giving some design guidance. Apple was thinking of a mini van, like the electric van ID Buzz of Volkswagen.
The initial design, the work of Jony Ivewas based on the historic Volkswagen mini van and was in fact internally called “Bread Loaf” (we could call it sandwich bread). But it is interesting to note how this concept it had been developed well before the German manufacturer’s announcement that it wanted to launch an electric mini van (which occurred in 2017).
The timing is not random. Around 2015 in fact different employees involved in the development of the Apple Car, they left the Cupertino company to be hired by Volkswagen.
But let’s get back to AppleCar. The car has undergone several years changes, which however took up the same basic concept. In 2020, the fourth version was shown to Tim Cook and Jeff Winlliams, Chief Operating Officer. The two managers were so impressed that they immediately pushed to continue the project.
This vehicle resembled, according to Gurman, the Canoo Lifestyle Vehicleand is described as a “futuristic van with rounded edges“. Apple had also introduced gull wings in the latest version, instead of a sliding door, but was still aiming to launch a vehicle equipped with autonomous driving of Level 5.
The problem is that the front was so sloping that according to Gurman there wasn’t much room for the windowsso when the apple house decided to take over the leadership of Level 2 he had to add not only that steering wheel And pedals, but also the front and rear windows.
In the end, the car had two front seats forward-facing that could rotate (to form a kind of “living room”), as well as include TVs and/or iPads for FaceTime and video playback, and a special air conditioning system that would flow air through the sides of the vehicle.
Unfortunately we don’t have the original drawings available, but maybe Apple will take some stylistic trait for one of his future projects.
Bloomberg