Apple’s electric car project on track for 2019 launch

Apple has planned to launch its long-rumoured electric car in 2019.

The Wall Street Journal  reported cited sources familiar with the plan.

The report said Apple would soon triple the staff of its Project Titan, which it had been investigating for several years.

Apple already enjoyed a significant presence in the automotive business, with a number of automakers offering its Apple CarPlay that integrated iPhone functionality with a vehicle's infotainment system.

However, insiders say Apple had been secretly developing an electric car.

Though Apple had recently discussed using an autonomous car testing facility in California, its first car was not expected to be driver-less.

There was no word yet whether Apple planned to set up its own manufacturing facility, like Tesla, or contract it to a third-party manufacturer, but it had recently hired a number of automotive industry veterans to work on the project.

According to a report in Wired, developing an electric car that also drove itself would be hard, putting a vehicle up for sale was no less challenging given car makers had to comply with rules running into over a thousand pages.

The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards lay down in much detail the standards manufacturers would need to follow for any passenger car (or bus, or motorcycle) they intended to sell.

Apple had built a reputation with its meticulous attention to detail, micromanagement of  hardware and software to make its phones, tables, and computers just what it wanted to be like and and it had been highly successful.

To enter the car business, it would still need that intense focus, but it would no longer be in control of the standards it was working to meet. ''Federal guidelines dictate everything from the size and colour of the turn signal in the dashboard, to the icon for the fuel gauge, to the exact force each occupant's seat must be able to withstand'', the report said.