The secret of Apple's car-making is here.

Author? fruit juice

Editor? Han Xiao

In the last day or two, the news about Apple's car-making has been overwhelming, which has aroused enthusiastic attention.

Yesterday, Taiwan Province Economic Daily reported that Apple had recently requested auto parts manufacturers in Taiwan Province Province, such as Hoda, China Federation of Trade, Heqin and Futian. Apple is expected to release Apple cars in September next year, and said that its prototype has been tested on the road in California.

Taiwanese media said that Apple will debut in the third quarter of next year.

Today, Reuters announced that Apple plans to produce a pure electric passenger car in 2024. Reuters also quoted people close to Apple as saying that Apple is developing power batteries with low cost and long life.

More than ten days ago, foreign media DigiTimes predicted that Apple would also make its debut in 2024-2025.

Although the timing of these news seems to be somewhat conflicting, Apple has applied for a number of patents since it entered the field of electric vehicles on 20 14. The sound of supply chain companies approaching also suggests that Apple's first car may really come.

But in fact, Apple officials have not announced a clear timetable for the release time of Apple cars. This matter has not been decided yet, and it is more speculation.

After communicating with people in the industry and consulting Apple's automobile patents, it was reported that "Apple will never die! 1 year adds 30 patents, all of which are black technologies, and decrypts Apple cars with 70 patents! After the brain hole is too big for Tesla to catch up with "and" Apple plays smart cars, and the road is wilder than Tesla ",the car also found some clues, and it is almost certain that the Apple car is really on the road.

In order to accurately understand Apple's car-making, the car has sorted out ten key issues, and we can have a clearer understanding of Apple's car-making.

1. Why did Apple build a car? Seize the wind of the times

Apple's main products are mainly consumer electronic products represented by iPhone, Mac and iPad. It is not a major player in the automotive field and has not had much experience before. Despite this, Apple entered the track across the border, so why did Apple do it?

In the eyes of cars, there are mainly the following reasons. On the one hand, under the leadership of Tesla, there is a wave of smart electric vehicles around the world, and governments of various countries are actively encouraging car companies to start electrification transformation. Many cross-border players, such as Weilai, Ideality and Tucki, have achieved good market results, and their stock prices and market values are soaring.

At present, the market value of Tesla exceeds the sum of Toyota and Volkswagen, and the market value of Weilai Automobile once surpassed that of BMW Group. The development potential of the smart electric vehicle market is very obvious.

Tesla's market value is 61600 million dollars.

On the other hand, Apple officially released the Q4 financial report for fiscal year 2020 at the end of 10. The financial report shows that Apple's revenue in the fourth quarter was 64.698 billion US dollars (about 433.4 billion yuan), an increase of 1% compared with 64.040 billion US dollars (about 4 1965438 billion yuan) in the same period last year.

Moreover, the revenue of iPhone business, which Apple relied on most before, fell by 20.7% year-on-year, and the revenue was 26.444 billion US dollars (about 1.73 1 billion yuan).

In such an environment, Apple also needs more business to support its own development, and the smart electric car that has recently caught fire is undoubtedly the best choice for Apple.

Although apple has also launched Car in the automotive field? Play, but for Apple, which has been committed to the C-end market, Car? Play obviously can't satisfy Apple's ambition in the automotive field, and it is more in line with Apple's consistent style to directly produce user-oriented Apple cars.

CarPlay

As an industry disruptor, if Apple can launch an intelligent electric vehicle with Apple characteristics, it will affect the trend of the industry in the next decade. Whether Apple's market value can reach 3 trillion US dollars (about RMB 19.6 trillion yuan) may be tied to Apple cars.

Second, does Apple have auto talents? Frequent corner digging has formed a complete car-making team.

Although it is confirmed that Apple will definitely build a car, the car is a big project after all and needs the support of talents, funds and technology. So, is Apple ready in these areas?

First, let's look at Apple's talent pool. 20 14 In March, after Apple released Carplay in-vehicle software at the Geneva Motor Show, it began to conduct substantial research on automobiles. 20 15, some media reported that thousands of people participated in the research and development of Apple's automobile project. At the same time, Apple has been encouraging Tesla employees to join Apple.

This year, Apple recruited outstanding talents from major car companies around the world, including Tesla, Chrysler and Volkswagen Group. Including Chris, former vice president of Tesla? Barrett. At present, he still holds an important position in Apple's Titan project.

In addition, in 20 15, Apple hired talents related to autonomous driving from companies such as NVIDIA and Waymo to help Apple develop an autonomous driving system. Apple also "dug" at least three battery experts from Samsung, focusing on power battery technology.

2065438+In July 2006, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple had re-employed Bob, the retired former senior vice president of Apple hardware. Mansfield, he will take over the Titan car project.

Bob, former senior vice president of hardware at Apple? Mansfield

Although Apple has never published the number of teams, some clues can be found from the public information. 2065438+In July 2008, when Apple sued Zhang, a former China engineer, it was revealed in the lawsuit documents that 5,000 employees were participating in the research of its autonomous driving project.

Judging from this information, Apple still attaches great importance to the automobile business and has expanded its enrollment many times since its establishment. Its employees include traditional OEMs, new car companies, autonomous driving companies and even power battery companies, covering almost all projects in the field of smart electric vehicles. In other words, Apple's reserve of automotive talents is comprehensive.

Third, is Apple short of money to build a car? 1.26 trillion cash reserve is not bad.

As we all know, building a car is a matter of burning money. At present, Tesla, the most successful car company in the field of new energy vehicles, has been losing money almost every year since the establishment of 17, and has burned more than 5 billion US dollars (about 32.7 billion yuan). After the establishment of Weilai Automobile, it also burned more than 20 billion yuan to get today's achievements, and both Li and Li have experienced similar stages.

In this process, many new car companies failed once and for all. After burning 2.6 billion pounds (about 22.8 billion yuan), Dyson announced that he would give up making cars, and Baiteng was in trouble after burning 8.4 billion yuan.

Dyson announced that he would give up making cars.

This also shows that burning money may not be able to launch a brand-new car brand, but it is impossible without money. As one of the successful technology companies in the world, Apple's cash flow reserve has always been in the forefront of the world. For Apple, burning money to build a car will not have any impact on the original business.

According to the data in Apple's Q4 financial report this year, Apple currently holds 1.9 1.83 billion US dollars in cash (about RMB 1.26 trillion yuan), which means that the amount of cash in Apple's hands has exceeded the market value of many companies.

Apple, which has money in hand, is also willing to spend money on car-making business. This year, Morgan Stanley (Morgan? Stanley) analyst Katie? Huberty once analyzed that Apple will invest nearly $654.38+09 billion (about RMB 654.38+02.43 billion) in automobile research and development this year.

According to Morgan Stanley's data, the global automobile industry spends between 80 billion and 654.38+000 billion US dollars (about 523.5 billion to 654.4 billion yuan) on automobile technology research and development. In other words, Apple's annual investment accounts for more than 20% of the research and development funds of the global automobile industry, from which we can see how high Apple's willingness to spend money on the automobile business is.

Fourth, does Apple have the technology to build a car? There are more than 100 patents in hand.

Talent and capital are not big problems for Apple, so the automobile field that Apple has been working hard in the field of consumer electronics can be described as a layman. Does Apple have any technology accumulation in the automotive field?

In fact, Apple's technical reserves in the automotive field are also very deep. Since the beginning of this year, Automotive has been tracking Apple's automobile patents, and almost every two or three months, Apple can come up with dozens of new patents.

In 20 19, Apple obtained more than 30 patents in the automotive field, involving automatic driving, AR navigation, vehicle VR, vehicle payment, biometrics, intelligent hardware, off-vehicle interaction, virtual rearview mirror and many other fields.

Patents related to automobiles obtained by Apple since 20 19.

More creative patents include turning seat belts into touch pads to operate some in-vehicle functions, using smart doors to prevent accidents when opening doors, and projecting rearview mirror images onto side windows.

After entering 2020, Apple has never stopped exploring automobile technology. By the end of 65438+February this year, Apple has obtained nearly 40 patents in the automotive field, covering autonomous driving, intelligent cockpit, intelligent body, electric vehicle, security and other fields.

For details, please refer to the previous report "The heart of the Apple car is not dead! 1 year adds 30 patents, all of which are black technologies, and decrypts Apple cars with 70 patents! The brain hole is too big for Tesla to catch up. ""Apple plays smart cars, and the road is wilder than Tesla. "

Judging from these patents, although Apple has not officially produced its own models, it has accumulated a large number of patented technologies in vehicle manufacturing, autonomous driving and intelligent cockpit.

At present, Apple has accumulated hundreds of automobile patents, and each new patent shows Apple's new thinking on smart electric vehicles. In other words, although Apple has not yet appeared, when it is released, it will definitely be a pioneering work to subvert the automobile industry.

It is also in the reserve of talents, technology and capital that many big names in the automobile industry regard Apple as their biggest rival. 20 16 Musk once said: "Tesla's biggest competitor is not Google, but Apple." At that time, Ford's then CEO Mark fields (Mark? Fields also believes that Google and Apple will be the biggest rivals, not GM or FCA.

Even if Apple's road to building a car in the past four years is not very smooth, some people think that Apple cannot be ignored. At the 12th Forum of Automotive Blue Book, Li Bin, CEO of Weilai Automobile, thought that in the high-end market, there would be only five car companies in the future, among which Tesla and Apple would be among them.

5. How does Apple make cars? Build a supply chain system

Although Apple has accumulated certain technology on the road of building cars, Apple has not yet announced the progress of building cars, and the outside world is not very clear about Apple's car-making situation.

At present, Apple's car-making progress can only be revealed by suppliers and insiders. From these words, we can also get a general understanding of the progress of Apple's car making.

From the beginning of1February, the news about Apple making cars suddenly increased. On June 5438+February 10, foreign media DigiTimes reported that recent news from automotive electronics and other related supply chains showed that Apple would set up a factory to manufacture cars in the United States, and the production plan, preliminary technology and product parameters had been basically determined. At present, preliminary cooperation negotiations have been started with automotive electronics suppliers.

Apple is currently understanding the technical specifications, costs, product prospects and other indicators of automotive products, which is similar to the RFQ process in the industry. At the same time, many suppliers have begun to send samples to Apple. DigiTimes also said that Apple is jointly developing autopilot chips with TSMC.

Just a few days ago, the network supply chain enterprises once again heard the news that Apple built a car. According to the report of Taiwan Province Economic Daily, recently, Apple began to put forward stocking requirements to auto parts factories such as Hoda, China Federation of Trade, Heqin and Futian, and these enterprises have entered the supply chain of Apple cars.

It is even said in the article that due to the huge demand of Apple, it has completely broken out with manufacturers such as Dalian and China Trade Federation.

Taiwan Province Media Statistics Supplier Information

Reuters also reported today that Apple is currently conducting further research on power batteries and autonomous driving. In terms of power batteries, Apple is studying large batteries and technologies similar to CTP. In terms of battery raw materials, Apple may also be studying lithium iron phosphate batteries.

In terms of autonomous driving, Apple will use multiple lidar. While developing its own lidar, Apple is still negotiating with potential lidar suppliers.

Judging from this information, Apple is already planning its first car, and has begun to contact parts manufacturers. It's only a matter of time before the first car is launched. On the other hand, Apple is still conducting research on core technologies.

6. What are the obstacles for Apple to build a car? Autopilot is still broken.

For Apple, which has repeatedly created subversive products, it will not only be satisfied with building an ordinary car. In order to achieve such a result, Apple will undoubtedly face some obstacles.

First of all, in terms of vehicle manufacturing, Apple does not have its own experience in building cars independently, and there are still many shortcomings in core components such as power batteries.

Secondly, what Apple wants to build must be a smart electric car, in which autonomous driving will definitely become an important part. However, Apple currently has some shortcomings in technology and data collection, and there are not many breakthroughs in autonomous driving technology.

At the beginning of the year, California Motor Vehicle Authority (DMV) released the 20 19 years' self-driving road test data of 58 self-driving companies (including 56 companies with self-driving road test licenses).

20 17 Apple which got the road test qualification is among them, but from the results, Apple's performance is not good, and there is still a big gap compared with Google.

Road test data of Google Waymo and Apple

In 20 19, Apple achieved a total mileage of 7,544 miles (about12,000 kilometers), 70 road test vehicles and MPD (miles? Per？ Disengagement, the most intuitive indicator to measure the "driving level" of self-driving cars, is 1 17.88 miles (about 189.7 kilometers). In 20 19, the total road test mileage of Google Waymo was about10.45 million miles (about 2.33 million kilometers), the number of road test vehicles was 148, and the MPD was 132 19.43 miles (about 2/kloc)

On the most critical MPD data, Google Waymo scored more than twice as much as Apple's1/kloc-0. This means that in terms of autonomous driving technology solutions, Apple still lags far behind Waymo.

Lexus RX450h used by apple for autopilot test

In terms of automatic driving data collection, the data collection ability of Apple's 70 cars lags far behind Tesla. After all, with the help of shadow mode, more than 654.38 million cars in Tesla are driving automatically. Data collection.

Generally speaking, Apple has not been able to achieve the leap from 0 to 1 on the road of building cars, and Apple has not made much achievements in the most critical autonomous driving technology in the future automobile industry competition, which is also an obstacle that Apple has to face on the road of building cars.

7. When will Apple's new car come out? Will be released in the next 2 ~ 3 years.

Apart from Apple's silent efforts, the most attractive thing for consumers is undoubtedly when Apple's car will go on the market, and this discussion has been very hot recently.

10 days ago, the media DigiTimes once said that it is expected that Apple will be officially unveiled at the Apple conference from 2024 to 2025. At that time, the news caused widespread concern in the industry.

DigiTimes predicts that Apple will debut in 2024 ~ 2025.

A few days ago, the comments of Taiwan Province media even pushed this time forward for more than two years. According to Taiwan Province Economic Daily, parts suppliers have confirmed that Apple will release Apple cars in September next year, at least two years ahead of schedule, and its prototype has been tested on the road in California.

Today, Reuters also published an article saying that Apple plans to produce an electric passenger car in 2024.

In just over ten days, the launch time of Apple Auto was repeated at three time points: 202 1, 2024 and 2024-2025, which made the people who ate melons overjoyed.

In fact, the discussion about the emergence time of Apple cars has a long history. 20 16 Tesla CEO musk guest code? He said at the press conference, "If there are no accidents, five years later, there will be a car with Apple Logo printed on the road in front of your office window." But five years later, the cars running outside the window are still BBA, Volkswagen, Toyota and Tesla.

musk

However, judging from the current news, Apple did make a real move in building a car. However, since there are no overseas media reports and there is no so-called Apple prototype, whether the new car will be released next year remains to be verified.

There is a lot of time from 2024 to 2025, both DigiTimes and Reuters tend to this time point, and Guo Ming, a well-known analyst, once predicted that Apple will be released between 2023 and 2025.

However, Apple's R&D ability and execution are excellent. In the case that the supply chain has already been laid out, it seems too slow to release Apple cars in three or five years, which is not in line with Apple's consistent style.

From this perspective, it will be more difficult for Apple to release next year, but 2022 and 2023 may be key nodes. However, this is all speculation, and the release time of Apple's car still has to wait for official confirmation.

8. What kind of car will Apple make? There will be three characteristics.

Although the release time of Apple car is still uncertain, it does not prevent us from guessing Apple car. Apple's constantly updated patented technology also provides us with enough clues.

Che Dongxi has also been tracking Apple's automobile patents before. Combining these patents, Che Dongxi believes that Apple's first car will have the following three characteristics.

1, the mechanical structure will be continuously optimized, and the hardware will evolve to intelligence.

Apple has always been a hardware company and has its own unique views on developing hardware. This function has been reserved in Apple's automobile patent.

Apple's automobile patent has also done a lot of hardware design, such as redesigning the hinge of the door, which can solve the problem of hitting the surrounding vehicles and automatic cars when opening the door; The bumper has telescopic function to reduce the damage caused by collision; The window can adjust the color, reflectivity and transparency according to the needs of passengers, which can not only ensure the privacy of the car, but also adjust the atmosphere inside the car.

Door structure in Apple patent

Apple also applied for a number of automobile suspension patents. After detecting the current road conditions, the vehicle will actively adjust the suspension to keep the occupants comfortable.

Even Apple wants to put airbags into seat belts.

Seat belt airbag

But just upgrading hardware is not Apple's ultimate pursuit. In Apple's vision, can the door handle be touched? ID or face? ID identification device for improving security.

The seat belt of the vehicle may also become touchable. Users can define different function buttons on the seat belt, and adjust the volume of the vehicle, answer the phone, ask Siri and other functions by clicking and sliding. The functions of car audio and communication are realized by seat belts. The built-in microphone is closer to the driver's mouth, so you can get better radio reception.

Drivers can freely define buttons and functions on drivers.

By embedding biometric technology and sensors, it can detect whether the driver is drunk. Seat belts are heated to keep drivers and passengers warm. In addition, the front seat belt can control the rear entertainment system, and at the same time, it can also use the outside sunlight for solar power supply.

The improvement of hardware can also show Apple's thinking about cars, and the redesign of decades-old seat belts highlights Apple's subversive thinking.

2.AR, VR and other virtual reality technologies will appear in cars.

Apple's patent last year is considering the combination of VR technology and cars, hoping that users can conduct immersive VR video conferencing in cars. AR augmented reality has always been one of Apple's key technologies, and putting this technology in cars is also one of Apple's goals.

In this regard, Apple's direction is AR-HUD. Up to now, Apple has obtained four patents on AR-HUD. Apple's AR-HUD can not only navigate, but also translate street signs.

AR-HUD translatable street sign

Through AR-HUD, the driver can also speak directly on the windshield, and the display screen can be as big as a real person, making the video call more telepresence. During driving, FaceTime mobile phone will not block the driver's sight, the co-pilot can see the complete picture, and the main driver can only make audio calls. When the vehicle speed drops or stops, the FaceTime screen will be displayed on the driver's side.

FaceTime video phone can be realized through the windshield.

These functions are not very mature under the current technical conditions, but considering that Apple cars will not be launched in the near future, with the evolution of technology, it is not impossible for these cool functions to appear on Apple cars.

3. Autopilot will be the highlight.

Although Apple's research and development progress in autonomous driving is not rapid, Apple still attaches great importance to autonomous driving, and many patents involve autonomous driving.

What is certain is that Apple's autonomous driving technology will definitely use lidar. From 20 18 to now, Apple has obtained a number of patented technologies about lidar.

In Apple's patent, lidar can not only be used for identification and ranging, but also detect animals and pedestrians that may appear on the road in extremely dark environment.

Infrared camera assisted lidar ranging

At the same time, the patent document also shows other sensor components, including camera, biological detection processor, lidar, vertical cavity surface emitting laser pulse controller and so on.

These sensors have different detection capabilities and can observe the road information around and in front of the vehicle in real time. The patent shows that Apple hopes to enjoy the data collected by the sensor, making the decision-making process of autonomous driving more accurate.

Apple also considered the problem of charging self-driving cars. According to Apple's patent, an electric car can automatically drive to a charging station and plug it in for charging.

For details, please refer to the previous report "The heart of the Apple car is not dead! 1 year adds 30 patents, all of which are black technologies, and decrypts Apple cars with 70 patents! The brain hole is too big for Tesla to catch up. ""Apple plays smart cars, and the road is wilder than Tesla. "

Generally speaking, although Apple has not yet appeared, it has conceived a blueprint for the car, such as the intelligent hardware of the whole body, VR and ar technologies entering the cockpit, and more precise and intelligent automatic driving. These functions are very worth looking forward to, and the corresponding Apple car is also very worth looking forward to.

9. Can Apple build its own car? OEM may be chosen in the short term.

There is another thing worth thinking about when Apple makes cars, that is, will Apple make its own products or OEM?

In the traditional field of consumer electronics, the mode of OEM is very mature. Companies like Foxconn and BYD are very successful in OEM, but OEM is not common in the automotive field. Only Magna will help car companies OEM some high-end models.

According to foreign media reports, Apple does have the idea of OEM. Reuters reported that Apple had previously held talks with Magna on the production of automobiles, but the talks failed because of the unclear plan of Apple.

At present, there are few rumors of Apple building a factory. In addition, Apple has no experience in producing cars before, and it still needs a lot of processes to get through.

Perhaps the most suitable way for Apple is OEM production and the establishment of a joint venture car company.

However, it should be noted that this is limited to the initial stage of Apple cars. After Apple's car can reach a certain sales volume every year, Apple will definitely consider building its own car.

This is not only related to Apple's long-standing development philosophy, but also related to the general laws of the automobile industry.

10. When did Apple start making cars? There was an idea in the Steve Jobs era.

Generally speaking, Apple's entry into the automobile industry is not a whim, but an idea that has long existed.

The New York Times reported that Jobs planned to develop the car brand iCar before his death, and former Apple executives also said that Jobs had the idea of building a car in 2008, but at that time he mainly focused on developing mobile phones.

After entering the second decade of this century, Apple gained a firm foothold in the mobile phone market and began to reconsider entering the automobile industry. In 20 14, Apple launched the code-named "Titan Project" and officially developed cars.

At the beginning of its development, Apple has been focusing on the development of automotive hardware until 20 16, when Bob? After Mansfield took over the Titan car project, Apple's R&D route shifted from car hardware development to autonomous driving system development.

In 20 17, Apple CEO Cook said in an interview with Bloomberg TV: "Apple is focusing on autonomous driving systems, but it may not necessarily develop real hardware products." In 20 18, Apple's test of autonomous driving has been continuously upgraded and the scale is also expanding.

However, in 20 19, the information about Apple's self-driving vehicles gradually decreased, and even the news that Apple laid off 200 people in the autonomous driving department broke out. The only big news is that Apple has acquired Drive.ai Autopilot Company. Whether driving or building a car, Apple seems to be more low-key.

Recently, according to Bloomberg News, the head of Apple's autopilot department was replaced again by John, senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy. Giannandrea is the director, former director Bob? Mansfield officially retired. Doug, Executive Director of Apple Titan Project? Report directly to John? John, reporting from Giannandrea? Giannandrea reports directly to Apple CEO Cook.

John, senior vice president of Apple? Jannandre

Since then, in recent days, Apple's news about building a car has revived, and it seems that it is not far from the launch of the first car.

Judging from this course, although Apple's road to building a car is not smooth, Apple has never given up this plan, and it is precisely because of this that Apple cars are worthy of users' long-term expectations.

Conclusion: Apple never just talks about making cars.

After the transformation of the four modernizations in the automobile industry, more and more cross-border people have entered the automobile field. However, among these outsiders, some have succeeded, some have left sadly, and some are still insisting.

Apple is a member of the camp that continues to insist. Although the progress is not rapid, Apple is not inferior in terms of talent reserve and capital reserve. With the investment of capital and talents, Apple has obtained more than 100 automobile patents, and is still preparing to build cars in an orderly way.

At this stage, there is more information about Apple's car making, which also shows that Apple's car making may soon reach a new node. Apple, a new car player, also ran into the arena. It won't be surprising if Apple suddenly shows its car at the press conference in the next few years.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.