FP StaffSep 05, 2022 17:22:07 IST
Project Titan or the Apple Car project has been making headlines for years now, even though Apple is, at the very least, at least 3 years away from actually unveiling and launching their car. Meanwhile, we constantly get news that Apple is hiring some of the best minds in the automotive industry.
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Even before revealing what a car from them would even look like, a survey has found that people in North America would be more interested in buying a car from Apple than a Tesla, or even Ford.
According to a 200,000 new-vehicle owners survey by Strategic Vision, Apple is the third in a list of brand considerations that people would “love” and consider buying a car from. Of all the people polled in the survey, about 38 per cent would buy a Toyota, 32 per cent would go for a Honda, about 26 per cent would prefer a car from Apple and about 21 per cent would go for Ford. Tesla found only 20 per cent of the polled audience as takers.
What’s interesting in this survey is that over 50% of Tesla owners would “definitely consider” buying a future Apple Car.
Strategic Vision said Apple has “the greatest combined score when looking at the top-box responses of two key measures,” which were “Future Consideration” and “Your Impression of Quality,” with 26per cent of people who would definitely consider and 24 per cent who think they would love it.
Apple’s plans for its Project Titan self-driving car initiative have evolved over the years. By the end of 2021, it was reported that VP of technology Kevin Lynch had taken the reins of the project following the departure of Doug Field.
Recently, Apple had hired one of Lamborghini’s top executives, Luigi Taraborrelli, who has worked with the Italian supercar giant for over 21 years and had overseen the development of some of Lamborghini’s most iconic cars. At Lamborghini, he not only oversaw the development of their chassis but also areas such as handling, suspensions, steering, brakes and rims.
Apple is said to be weighing a number of different options for Project Titan, but its ambitious goal is to ship a self-driving EV without a steering wheel by 2025.
Tesla has been synonymous with the EV revolution and continues to be the “it” car of this decade. However, the charm that cars from Tesla had, has slowly waned off. The charm worked mostly on tech guys, to begin with. It did not gel well with most petrolheads in the first place.
Over the years, there have been several news stories of Tesla cars being involved in horrific crashes. Then, there is the fact that most Teslas have been very expensive even with rebates and discounts. There is also the fact that they are notoriously difficult to repair. Independent repair providers mostly shy away from working on Teslas simply, because the company might brick the car and render it useless over a software update if it comes across an action that was not approved by them.
But most of all, it has to do with the way Tesla operates. Tesla last launched a new model called the Model Y back in 2020, which, unfortunately for them, did not sell that well. They have unveiled the Tesla Truck, as well as the Tesla Roadster, however, no one really knows when will these cars see the light of day, assuming if at all they will be launched.
