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Motor Trend teasing speculative piece on Apple Car tomorrow

Betteridge’s law of headlines is that any headline ending in a question mark can be answered by the word no, and Motor Trend was working hard to prove it today. The auto industry publication had a lot of Apple and EV enthusiasts excited today after teasing a reveal set for tomorrow with several design sketches and pictures posted to their Twitter feed:

[tweet https://twitter.com/MotorTrend/status/720265417252405251 align=’center’]

Is this the Apple Car we’ve all been waiting for? As per the law above…

It is far more likely than not, that Motor Trend is going to publish a speculative piece or design exercise of its own vision of what an Apple car could look like rather than an actual prototype or sketch leak.

Apple has yet to officially address its car program, but at this point, it’s kind of an “open-secret” in the auto and tech industries that Apple is developing an electric vehicle codenamed “Project Titan”. For the most part, the Cupertino-based company has been able to keep details under wraps.

Based on all the secrecy and anticipation around the project, it’s not surprising that Motor Trend’s teasing would be successful in creating hope of an actual leak of early design cues:

[tweet https://twitter.com/MotorTrend/status/720223181705850880 align=’center’]

[tweet https://twitter.com/MotorTrend/status/720310676372086784 align=’center’]

[tweet https://twitter.com/MotorTrend/status/720355923428904966 align=’center’]

What might be most interesting about this is that it actually looks like another fake that’s been floating around.

We will “check back” tomorrow, not to see the Apple car, but to see what Motor Trend envisions what it would look like. If their teasers are any indications, it looks like a “weird-mobile” – something I doubt Apple would ever risk bringing to the automotive market.

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Comments

  1. Robert - 8 years ago

    It’s easy to keep “details” secret when they don’t yet exist!

    At this point Apple is likely working on things like sensors and motors rather than “details” of the outward appearance of a car. They may not have even finally decided what form factor the first Apple Car would have.

    These sketches look horrible, I did better car sketches when I was 11 years old in the early 90’s.

    • chrisl84 - 8 years ago

      The outward appearance is the only thing that will make the car unique. Apple isn’t putting heart rate monitors into the steering wheel or some other bizarre sensor stuffed vehicle. The sensors and motors are all already widely used and tested. Not much more for Apple to do but copy and paste. external design and dashboard design are all that will make Apple Car any different than any other car.

      • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

        Actually they could easily place heart rate sensors into the steering wheel to augment other sensors such as facial recognition to determine if the driver is beginning to fall asleep. That’s assuming it isn’t highly autonomous by the time it comes out anyway, which it likely will be. Will it have a steering wheel? Yes for years at least, but autonomous features will keep someone on the road or from hitting something of course.

      • chrisl84 - 8 years ago

        Except they ARENT…..and if anyone thinks that is what Apple Car is working on right now, dream on. Apple Car aint gonna reinvent the wheel, its gonna be Tesla 2.0 at best and more likely just be a Tesla with an Apple logo on it.

    • George Waring - 8 years ago

      When I saw it I immediately though of that old “Ah ha” video.

  2. rogifan - 8 years ago

    First who’s we and second, any headline that ends in a question mark undoubtably the answer is no. That sketch reminds me of some of the mockup people stick on behance that make an Apple car look like a Magic Mouse.

  3. applegetridofsimandjack - 8 years ago

    If Apple can come up with a truly innovative car (car which doesn’t use fossile fuels, is affordable, can last for 500/600 km before it needs to be re-supplied with power, which doesn’t cause too much pollution to manufacture and is safe), it will eclipse the success Apple has had with all their other products, combined, and with ease.

    • Doug Aalseth - 8 years ago

      I agree completely, but that’s a lot of ifs.
      OTOH if they do nail every one of your points and more, there’s a group out there that STILL will say it’s terrible.

      • shareef777 - 8 years ago

        Yep, there’s also a group that will say that it’s revolutionary, even it’s just a re-badged Tesla at twice the price.

      • applegetridofsimandjack - 8 years ago

        There will always be haters. And they will say it’s terrible regardless of how good it actually is.

    • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

      For use in the US a 600 km range is a must.A network of solar or wind powered power stations would also be key. I still say partnering with someone like BMW for the body panels and assembly is key. The price will be much higher if Apple builds and sells the cars by themselves.I don’t see how Apple can meet its goal of 2020 without partnering with an existing car maker to deliver the vehicles.

    • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

      One thing is for sure, no one changes the world unless they can supply their idea or product to hundreds of millions of people, at least, or bring about a new idea or market that reaches that many people with this new type of product.

      Apple wants to change the world, and therefore I believe there will be an affordable version.

      If you look at Tesla, they’ve changed absolutely nothing thus far, and that’s because their product has not reached anywhere near enough people. You could argue they’ve spurred the development of electric and autonomous vehicles, but that’s it, and they were already slowly being developed. Now, with the new model they can begin to bring about some change, hopefully, although it will still be years before they’re affordable to the masses.

      • Tesla’s initiatives were the first thing that led to all these initiatives being taken seriously by auo companies. I don’t see an Apple Car being better than a Tesla in the next 5 years

      • chrisl84 - 8 years ago

        There newest release just got around 300,000 preorders in a weekend. I’d say they did what they set out to do.

    • I hope there is an Autopilot mode.Without it it’s just not sexy

  4. ankushnarula - 8 years ago

    Why shouldn’t MT make a buck off of Apple? It’s low hanging fruit (sorry) in journalism.

    • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

      They are totally entitled to it, it’s how the world is. Like all of the news organizations are entitled to make massive money off covering the ex-NFL player’s death, and exploiting it even more due to his name being identical to a famous actor. Imagine how many people clicked because they saw a click bait headline like ‘Will Smith shot dead’ or the like. It’s what greed and captialism and everything we allow gets you, but hey it is what it is.

      • ankushnarula - 8 years ago

        Is this your first disingenuous comparison?

  5. Christopher Armenia - 8 years ago

    With over 300k REFUNDABLE reservations for the Model III, Apple should be getting a few controlled leaks slip right about now.

  6. Rich Davis (@RichDavis9) - 8 years ago

    At least it’s not some fugly VW Beetle lookalike.

  7. shareef777 - 8 years ago

    I hope Apple realizes that people don’t purchase a new car every year and that they do as Tesla and provide some details on the vehicle at least a year in advance so that people can plan accordingly. While I’m not up for purchasing a car this year, if I knew an Apple Car or the Model 3 are coming out next year it would definitely make me hold off on any decision.

  8. taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

    The sketches look like a rounder version of the i3.

    • spiffers - 8 years ago

      I really hope they are not basing the car on the i3, it looks like a pig and drives like one too. Just changing some body panels but keeping the platform itself, would still give the same handling. If they should base it on an existing car, I would rather prefer they did it on the Mercedes B Electric Drive.

  9. Louis Banks - 8 years ago

    I take it we can look forward to apple car mini, Apple car air, and Apple car pro models in two sizes down the line?

    • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

      How about 62 models like the Apple Watch now comes in?

      • Louis Banks - 8 years ago

        Wheels will be an accessory not included in the packaging, but will come in 62 various styles for the fashion savvy. No doubt you’ll also be able to charger the car via lightning cable & 12W brick…it will just take days to do until they decide to release a mega sized option sold separately. :)

  10. jedimindtrick99 - 8 years ago

    IMO I would think the Apple Car would shadow the look from a Mercedes Benz, Steve Jobs love the SL55 AMG.
    Personally I rather them not make a car,it will probably take away from better things they could be doing, like make a printer or a Stand alone DSLR, or a Home Automation Hub , or an Actual Car Audio Head Unit to replace one in any car, a Actual Screen TV. You know do Apple stuff, don’t turn into old men playing with cars. & I love cars, its just not for Apple.

    • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

      Printer – awful
      Standalone DSLR – awful
      Home automation hub – what the Apple TV should be, but will be soon
      Car head unit – not worth the 4 things you’d do in a car
      Actual tv screen – not worth it, can’t make anything profoundly better than any current hardware, and can’t change it often and make it better like an Apple TV.

      Apple wants to change the world, not change a few people’s worlds. These are some things Aple should’ve doing.

      •Augmented reality through more sensors on the backs of iPhones, to give live information about objects and the environment in front of you through the camera. This is probably the biggest and longest future advancements to smartphones.

      •A car which is fully electric and highly autonomous which will progress to fully autonomous and be a huge part of changing the world to that. Much further in the future they’ll be at the forefront of autonomous drones which fly people as a means of transportation. The thing about the future is that most people can’t imagine it. Technology will run transportation in the future, and Apple not getting in on it would be profoundly idiotic. Luckily they understand.

      •biometrics through wearables (clothing, watch, etc.)

  11. bdkennedy11 - 8 years ago

    1. It’s ugly.
    2. The information may be thrown out there as a distraction.
    3. It’s true and it’s ugly.

  12. bellevueboy - 8 years ago

    When it launches  car will be called iPod thus Savin Apple any headache of trademark or domain ownership

  13. elme26bih - 8 years ago

    This is just ugly.

  14. triankar - 8 years ago

    man, is this thing gonna be overpriced…

  15. Monty™© MCMLXXII - 8 years ago

    I just pray they don’t offer it in Rose Gold

  16. chopingman - 8 years ago

    Really, who cares?
    All prospects are for cheap gas for the next 8-12 years given that starting next January, it’s going to be “Drill Baby Drill” for the foreseeable future. The days of faux $5-6 gas are OVER. Auto Co’s are having a hard time giving Electric Cars away. Friends of mine just leased the all electric Fiat 500 for $69 a month!
    As with all things Apple, there will be a heavy “Apple Tax” to pay on this thing if it ever sees the light of day. With several quite serviceable alternatives available now for near nothing, who’s going to pay double for a car with no appeal what so ever?

Author

Avatar for Fred Lambert Fred Lambert

Fred is the Editor in Chief and Main Writer at Electrek. He sometimes contributes to 9to5mac and 9to5Google.