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An entry about "Apple car rumored or sold for $90, 000" went viral on Weibo today. According to media reports, the Apple Car could be priced at around $90, 000 (about 609000 yuan), and the new car could be released in 2026.

In fact, there has been a lot of news about Apple building cars in recent years. As a mobile phone giant, Apple has never given up its plan to enter the auto industry, and Jobs came up with the idea of building a car as early as 2008. In 2014, Apple proposed a "Titan plan" to enter the automotive field. However, the process is not smooth, not only did not build a car plan, but also almost ran aground, "Titan project" is constantly being reported layoffs.

In 2018, with the return of Apple senior expert Doug Field, Apple car-building was able to restart, but Doug then left. In January 2019, Apple announced that it would fire 200 employees of the Titan project team. In the same year, Apple acquired Drive.ai, a self-driving car company, left dozens of engineers involved in engineering and product design, and submitted a number of car patents such as remote control and driving to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. At the end of 2020, it was reported that Apple made stock requirements to the auto parts factories in Taiwan, such as Heda, the Federation of Trade, Heqin and Futian, and the first model is expected to be officially unveiled in the third quarter of 2021.

It was revealed that Apple car-making team was disbanded in 2022, and the Apple Car team has been disbanded for some time, according to Tianfeng International analyst Guo Mingyi in March 2022. If the Apple Car mass production target is to be achieved by 2025, the team restructuring needs to be completed within the next 3-6 months. In December, Apple may abandon the launch of the "L5" fully self-driving car and postpone its market date to 2026, according to the Financial Associated Press.

Judging from the news that Apple is building a car, its first model will be unveiled at the same time. Of course, the delayed launch of Apple's first model may have something to do with the frequent changes in Apple's management and the successive departures of its core employees. According to earlier media reports, Apple has gradually lost its core team members of self-driving and cars since 2021, and the senior team has also ushered in a major change, including Dave Scott, who leads the automotive robot technology team, and Jaime Waydo, who leads the self-driving car safety and regulatory team. And Benjamin Lyon, who helped create Apple's original car team a few years ago and played a key role in project development.

According to incomplete statistics, as of June 2021, there were fewer than 12 senior executives in Apple's self-driving car team.

"No steering wheel, no brake pedal" was once the biggest highlight of Apple cars. However, due to policy, technology and other factors, Apple's idea may be difficult to land. Cross-border car building is already difficult. Apple wants to build cars from scratch, which is not ordinary for Apple, which has no experience in building cars. After all, it is far more difficult to control the quality of cars than to control the quality of mobile phones, because complex cars are related to travel safety and are equipped with tens of thousands of parts.

In addition, with the rapid development of new energy vehicles, the competitive situation of smart vehicles has also changed, traditional cars have also joined the new energy vehicle track, car companies will also go through a round of reshuffle.

At present, Apple car has no advantage in technology, and it is difficult to ensure the innovation of the product, and it will face a huge capital investment for a long time. Many cross-border enterprises hope to break through through advantages such as systems, but Apple's in-car system CarPlay is relatively mediocre and has no obvious advantages. In addition, Apple's user growth is based more on Apple's own users and car brands. In other words, it will be difficult for Apple cars to open the market without subversive innovation.

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