Skip to main content

Apple CEO says ‘massive change’ is coming to auto industry

Apple CEO Tim Cook has given the latest sign that the iPhone maker is planning an assault on the car industry, saying there is a ‘massive change’ in the market, according to the Telegraph. Speaking at the Wall Street Journal's WSJDLive conference this week, Cook talked of the growing importance of software in the car of the future, the rise of autonomous vehicles and the shift from an internal combustion engine to electrification. "It would seem like there will be massive change in that industry, mass
October 21, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
493 Apple CEO Tim Cook has given the latest sign that the iPhone maker is planning an assault on the car industry, saying there is a ‘massive change’ in the market, according to the Telegraph.

Speaking at the Wall Street Journal's WSJDLive conference this week, Cook talked of the growing importance of software in the car of the future, the rise of autonomous vehicles and the shift from an internal combustion engine to electrification.

"It would seem like there will be massive change in that industry, massive change," he said. "You may not agree with that. That's what I think.

"When I look at the automobile, what I see is that software becomes an increasingly important part of the car of the future. You see that autonomous driving becomes much more important."

He declined to respond to published reports that Apple is developing an electric car that might hit the road as soon as 2019. Cook said that, in the short term, Apple is working to bring the ‘iPhone experience’ to the vehicle through CarPlay, its in-dash system that creates a way for users to access their iTunes music collections or get driving directions from its mapping software without touching their phones.

"We’ll see what we do in the future," he said. "I do think that the industry is at an inflection point for massive change."

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • C-ITS in Europe: jazz or symphony?
    August 18, 2021
    Communication between vehicles on the road is going to be increasingly important. Richard Lax of Kapsch TrafficCom explains why music is a good guide to the way that this could work safely
  • Xerox takes youthful view of future transport
    August 23, 2016
    Xerox’s David Cummins talks to Colin Sowman about the lessons for city authorities from its survey of younger peoples’ attitude to transport. There can be no better way to get a handle on the future of transport demand than to ask the younger generation about how they view and consume today’s transport. Sociologists have called this group Generation Z – those born between 1995 and 2007 – which will make up 40% of all US consumers by 2020.
  • First among equals
    May 21, 2012
    Dr Peter Sweatman, Director of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and the new chairman of ITS America, has no doubt where safety stands in the ITS world What do you hope to achieve in your term as chairman of ITS America? I really want to advance the agenda of safe and sustainable transportation because ITS really is the only weapon that can advance that. We have been working on connected vehicles for safety for a number of years, putting all of the right elements in place,
  • Investment and innovation the future of ITS
    January 31, 2012
    Cisco's Paul Brubaker, former administrator of the US Department of Transportation's (USDOT's) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), takes a look at how the ITS sector is starting to attract the attention of major corporations and what this will mean for intelligent transportation in the coming years