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Elon Musk VS Tim Cook: Internet bets on which CEO will pioneer the better self-driving car

Two sources were quoted as saying that after Doug Field, an Apple veteran who worked at Tesla Inc., returned to Apple in 2018, the company has progressed enough that it now aims to build a vehicle for consumers

Apple Inc is reportedly eyeing 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle that will include a breakthrough battery technology and this has resulted in tech enthusiasts on Twitter coming up with theories about what Apple's car would boast of and if it can beat Elon Musk's Tesla. The venture titled Project Titan has reportedly been ongoing since 2014 when Apple first began to design a passenger vehicle from scratch. 

According to a Reuters exclusive report, two people familiar with the project were quoted as saying that after Doug Field, an Apple veteran who worked at Tesla Inc., returned to Apple in 2018, the company has progressed enough that it now aims to build a vehicle for consumers. A person who is familiar with Apple's battery design was quoted as saying that this would the company's central strategy and that it would “radically” reduce the cost of batteries. This in turn would increase the vehicle’s range. Sources have also claimed that they expect the company to rely on a manufacturing partner to build vehicles. It seems highly possible that Apple would decide to reduce the scope of its efforts to an autonomous driving system which can then be integrated with a car made by a traditional automaker. 

The report also added that Apple would reach out to third-party partners for elements of the system, including lidar sensors which are central to self-driving cars as these sensors give the car a three-dimensional view of the road. After speculation about the Apple self-driving car broke, one Twitter user who happens to be a tech researcher commented, "Apple still reputedly planning to build an iCar. The apparent secret sauce: They watched the livestream of Tesla’s battery day; They also took notes; Then those notes were exclusively leaked to Reuters. So they could hire, hoping to begin production by [checks notes] 2025." Along with the caption, the Twitter user had shared screenshots of the Reuters report. To this, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla responded and said, "Strange, if true. - Tesla already uses iron-phosphate for medium-range cars made in our Shanghai factory. - A monocell is electrochemically impossible, as max voltage is ~100X too low. Maybe they meant cells bonded together, like our structural battery pack?" He then added, "During the darkest days of the Model 3 program, I reached out to Tim Cook to discuss the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla (for 1/10 of our current value). He refused to take the meeting."

The Reuters report had also mentioned how it took Tesla a total of 17 years before it sustained profit making cars. So when fans of both Cook's Apple and Musk's Tesla began betting on whose would be the best self-driving car, it was not surprising. One fan commented, "I think Elon is simply pointing out, rightly so, how stupidly @tim_cook handled the missed opportunity on behalf of shareholders and the head of $AAPL to explore the possibility #LessonsLearned."

Candace Owens, the NYT best selling author tweeted, "Apple hasn’t been innovative since Steve Jobs died. They scam people into buying modified chargers for all of their devices that are no longer universal with one another. Every new iPhone is just an old iPhone with a slightly better camera & a million adapter cables needed," and added, "In essence, Apple is arrogant for no reason. They lost their “genius” long ago. Apple with Steve Jobs would be like Tesla without
@elonmusk. Important to get your ideas down now or your company will suffer the same fate: anyone can scam (Tim Cook) not everyone can innovate."

One Twitter user tweeted, "K, bet 200 points that Tesla brings a phone to market before Apple brings a car to market," in response to another tweet that read, "I'll bet anyone 100 million fake internet points that Apple never brings an EV to market."

Many Twitter users also commented on the technical aspects of what it would mean for Apple to enter the self-driving car production fray and how it would affect the market that has so far been ruled by Tesla. One user wrote, "Apple drove the price of the smart phone up. Tesla drove the price of the EV / smart car down. There is plenty of room in the space for Apple, but I bet they buy Open Pilot to compete with FSD. It's ironic since that's the Android of FSD." Another user wrote, "For now car manufacturing overseas & shipping around like they can do with phones is not a viable approach. So my bet is that doing the silicon & probably the sw to go along with it as business is probable. If next gen cars are smart then some1 needs to provide the brains right?"

The Reuters report also mentioned that Apple might be looking at multiple lidar sensors for different distances of which they may also examine building their own sensor considering how the Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro and iPad Pro models released this year both feature lidar sensors.