Does Apple (AAPL) have an iCar?
Various reports point to pictures taken by the blog site claycord.com and video from YouTube site i a myself showing a mysterious minivan with an unknown apparatus on the roof driving around both the San Francisco area and Brooklyn, New York. Bay area TV station KPIX reports the vehicle belongs to Apple. And that’s led to speculation the tech giant is looking to challenge Google (GOOGL) and Uber in the race to create a self-driving car.
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Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Michael Santoli says he's not sure about that, but there is one thing he is sure of -- Apple, Google and other big technology firms want to get a piece of your wheels.
“There’s a reason all the tech companies are obsessed with cars-- because it’s the one place they can’t reach you easily,” he points out. “There’s all this time in the day when you’re not online and they want to be there.”
Yahoo Finance’s Jeff Macke agrees.
“They will not be happy until there’s no way for you to leave the grid,” he argues. “So look for more vans until that happens.”
Also being speculated: Apple is using the vehicle to improve its mapping software.
Santoli wouldn't be surprised at anything.
"I would never foreclose on the chance that Apple along with Google and everyone else would be saying, 'What the heck, let's experiment with different things,'" he says.
The company has not commented.
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