Tim Cook at Apple Event
Source: Apple
A closely watched Apple analyst warns investors to be cautious about a report that the iPhone maker plans to produce a self-driving car by 2024.
Last week’s Reuters report sent stocks of companies that build self-driving car components, such as lidar sensors, to skyrocket. But the hype was purely speculation, some of those companies could provide parts for the Apple car, TFI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo warned in a note this weekend.
Kuo has earned a reputation for accurately disclosing Apple’s product launch plans, and he closely follows Apple’s supply chain.
“We believe that the current so-called Apple car concept stocks are just speculation of the market and that no actual Apple car suppliers are involved,” said Kuo. “We also think that because the technical specifications of electric cars / self-driving cars are still evolving, it is too early to talk about the final specifications of the Apple car.”
Kuo said the market is “too optimistic” for the Apple car and wouldn’t be surprised if the Apple car isn’t launched until 2028 or later. The earliest he thinks it could hit the market is in 2025. Kuo also suggested that Apple may be too far behind in artificial intelligence to launch a competitive self-driving car.
“If Apple Car is to succeed in the future, the key success factor is big data / AI, not hardware,” he said. “One of our biggest concerns about Apple Research December 27, 2020 2 Apple Car is that when Apple Car launches, today’s self-driving car brands will have accumulated at least five years of big data and are conducive to deep learning / AI. , this lagging chasm? “
Apple has kept its grand vision of automobiles relatively quiet. But the company has been testing self-driving technology for a few years now, and CEO Tim Cook has said he sees the technology as a way to power Apple’s AI systems.
Other analysts were just as skeptical as Kuo.
“Apple is conducting R&D in many areas, and while we are not surprised that the media is again discussing Project Titan for automobiles, we are very skeptical that Apple will actually produce a car as the profitability of the automotive sector is much lower”, said Jim. Suva wrote in a note last week.