It is being said that the co-founder of technology giant Apple Inc. wanted to be the part of auto industry as well. According to an official at Apple, Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind legendary gadgets like iPhones, iPods and Mac computers, had envisioned an iCar.
The desire of the late Steve Job's to have a car in the company's product line-up was revealed at the Fast Company Innovation Uncensored Expo, New York. It was Mickey Drexler, a board member at Apple, who uncovered this fact. He said, "Look at the car industry - it's a tragedy in America." He further added, "They talk about expense, they talk about this - and then you say, well 'who's designing the cars?' Steve's dream, before he died, was to design an iCar."
According to him, if Jobs would have come up with the iCar in his lifetime, it would have changed the course of the industry and ruled it. He quoted, "It would've been probably 50 per cent of the market."
If rumours are to be believed, the iCar was being worked upon by the company for many years. However, it was in 2007 that these speculations gained some ground when Jobs had a meeting with Volkswagen Group's head, Martin Winterkorn. Both the industry leaders discussed the possibility of forming an alliance to design a car catering to youths.
Since then, the German car maker has introduced a small car for the price sensitive youth market, the Up. Even though it was not developed in collaboration with the tech company, it did come with a dashboard tablet display that was heavily influenced by the iPad.
Unfortunately, Jobs never created any drafts of the design for the said car. Nevertheless, there are many designs regarding the look of the concept iCar from Apple, including the one by 22-year-old transport design student Liviu Tudoran. His three seater iMove plug-in electric car boasts of several advanced features. The concept was replete with Apple style technology, like a 'photochromic' exterior which can change colour at driver's will. It also features a convertible roof, which is designed to look like the Apple mouse, and a touchscreen display along the whole length of the dashboard, which is charged through solar receptors located in the glass.
The Cupertino-based technology multinational recently patented a new steering wheel-mounted Bluetooth-based remote controller for its gadgets, which is aimed at reducing driver distraction.
