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SYNC 3 and Apple CarPlay

Recall when Apple was going to upend the unabridged car industry with a self-designed vehicle? As recently equally 3-four years ago, Apple's internal Titan / T172 projects reportedly had over a thousand employees, a strong mandate from the top contumely, and the funding to take over the world. Today, Apple appear that it would partner with Volkswagen to convert the company's existing T6 Transporter vans into self-driving shuttles for Apple employees. This is far from the "iCar" that the rumor mill promised and that Apple, past all accounts, at i point seriously intended to deliver. It has much more in common with the ROKR — a terrible Apple-Motorola joint phone effort that attempted to combine the "ease" and "convenience" of iTunes with the frontwards-thinking audio and content playback capabilities of a mid-2000s candybar phone.

Every bit the New York Times makes clear, the Apple-VW partnership has nothing to do with any productive synergy between the 2 companies. Apple tree reportedly negotiated with BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Lexus, McLaren, and BYD Auto in Cathay. In each instance, the issues appear to have been similar. Apple wanted more than control over the driver experience and vehicle pattern than its potential partners were willing to grant.

The project as well suffered enormously from resets and shifting goals. At first, Apple wanted to build its own vehicle from the basis up. And then it decided it wanted to blueprint the car, but pay someone else to manufacture information technology. Later, Apple prioritized working with existing vehicles, just outfitting them with Apple-designed sensors and systems. Apple tree did move ahead with practical self-driving tests, including winning approval to test three Lexus SUVs in the Bay Area, but it never moved forward in a partnership with Lexus partly over disagreements over which company would command the use and collection of data every bit well equally the overall user feel.

It's not articulate what data, specifically, caused the disagreement, but we tin can think of two major hurting points off the bat. First, Apple tree may not have wanted to share the self-driving data it collected from its customers with its potential manufacturing partner, for fear that the company in question would employ that data to speed development of competitive self-driving cars. That'southward a significant fright given how many companies are betting the farm on the idea of near-term autonomous vehicles, and the disquisitional importance of data sets to training AIs and building a (nearly) perfect autonomous driver.

The other major potential outcome concerns the employ of personal data. Automotive companies and marketing firms are practically drooling at the idea of collecting personal data for advertising purposes, and the privacy policies of many cutting-edge firms explicitly allow this behavior. The overall situation has been documented by multiple sources — and nosotros're still at the very beginning of the "smart automobile" product ramp.

Volkswagen, meanwhile, doesn't look as well smashing either. The NYT suggests the partnership was signed every bit much out of a desire to rehabilitate VW'south image as anything, and given the beating the company took following its conclusion to crook on emissions tests, it's not exactly in a position to dictate terms. VW has announced significant investments into electrical vehicles, and Apple's collaboration with the company is a continuation of that trend.

The NYT reports that Apple'due south overhaul of the T6 is significant, writing:

The frame, wheels and chassis of the T6 vans will remain, but Apple is replacing many components, including the dashboard and seats, said ii people familiar with the project. Apple is also adding other computers, sensors and a large electric auto battery, they said. The shuttles will ferry employees between 2 of Apple'south Silicon Valley campuses, and will include a commuter behind the bike to have control if needed, besides as an operator in the rider'due south seat tracking the van'southward operation.

Executives leading Apple'southward car project had told Mr. Melt that the shuttle would be completed by the terminate of 2018, merely that borderline will be missed, ane former employee said. It is unclear whether Apple's partnership with Volkswagen will extend beyond the shuttle.

But regardless of whether Apple continues to partner with VW, the dream of an iCar — a vehicle designed past a smartphone company with the aim of completely reinventing the automotive experience — seems to be dead. Every bit adept equally Apple is (or isn't, of class, depending on your point of view) at building smartphones, it doesn't seem to have translated that capability into vehicular authorization.