Apple, Google and Amazon all see the development of driverless cars as the key to dominating the industry
Over the past several months, Apple has prioritised plans for the “Apple Car” after previously focusing on making an autonomous driving system, Bloomberg has reported. That’s fuelled intense speculation over which automakers and suppliers the company behind the iPhone may partner with to realise its vision. While Apple has recently lost multiple top managers on the project, it still has hundreds of engineers in its larger car group.
Amazon, meanwhile, has thrown its weight behind Rivian Automotive, which is making electric trucks, and in 2020 bought driverless start-up Zoox. It may look to include autonomous rides as part of its prime membership programme. Although Apple has dominated phones, tablets and smartwatches and put up a decent fight over computers for the past few decades, it’s been a laggard in the artificial intelligence, voice and smart-speaker spaces, areas now led by Google and Amazon.
The onslaught has automotive incumbents girding for battle. Industry titans such as Ford, General Motors and Toyota have stepped up their own rival efforts in self-driving. The Japanese automaker is building an entire city city around autonomous driving at the base of Mount Fuji while South Korea’s Hyundai is committing $7.4bn to make EVs in the US and develop unmanned flying taxis.
The existing businesses of Amazon, Apple and Google already require them to become proficient at AI, handling massive amounts of data and designing complex systems. Essentially, they’ve made the upfront investment in core technologies needed to design and build driverless cars, and they now have legions of engineers eager to solve more complex problems, not to mention an appetite for disruption.