Earlier this week it was reported that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had a secret meeting with Apple’s merger and acquisitions chief Adrian Perica last year at Apple’s headquarters, which sparked countless rumors about a possible acquisition. Now Elon Musk has confirmed that the two companies did indeed meet last year, and although he didn’t make any official statements he did drop some hints as to what’s next for the electric automaker.
In a statement to , Elon Musk said, “We had conversations with Apple. I can’t comment on whether those revolved around any kind of acquisition.” But when pressed further, Musk said that he thought it would be a good idea if Apple got into the car business. While it could be a while until we hear the details of last year’s meeting, there is some speculation that the two companies met to discuss integrating Apple mobile operating system into Tesla’s vehicles.
This year at CES, Google’s Android announced plans to integrate its system into several vehicles thanks to a new partnership with a number of automakers. Apple could be working on its own mobile system for Tesla’s vehicles, and Musk also confirmed that he’d rather see Apple’s operating system in Tesla’s vehicles than the Android system.
This week Elon Musk also revealed that it expects Tesla to be the first automaker to bring autonomous driving technology to market. Unlike Google’s self-driving cars, Musk predicts that Tesla’s vehicles will have an autopilot function that allows the car to go into autonomous mode for a set period. Tesla also announced plans to create a new “Gigafactory” that will produce batteries for the automaker’s upcoming vehicles. The new factory will be located in the U.S., and thanks to easier manufacturing processes the new batteries will be cheaper.
+ Tesla Motors
Via Forbes
