Will Apple's autonomous car soon become reality?

Any big Apple automotive hire sparks renewed interest in the ongoing will-they-won’t-they Apple car project, and the latest comes as one of the most tangible signs that the iPhone maker still sees a future for itself in automotive.

The latest recruit, in May, was reportedly Luigi Taraborrelli, the former head of chassis and vehicle dynamics at Lamborghini, whose 20-year career at the Italian supercar maker is almost certainly a massive red herring as to the type of vehicle Apple will make.

The latest thinking, reported by the likes of Bloomberg and others, is that the secretive, eight-year-long Project Titan is now exclusively an autonomous car with a launch date of 2025. Passengers will face each other in a sleek pod, or so the more recent reports suggest.

News that the potential Apple car might not feature a steering wheel will relieve many car manufacturers, at least in the medium term. Although now largely through the full hype cycle, total autonomy is still at least 10 years away, according to analyst company Gartner, which would mean a self-driving Apple car presents little threat to the current sales model for car makers.

If Apple really does launch an autonomous car in 2025, it would be largely a test car with possibly a limited role as a public robotaxi in the manner of the Cruise Chevrolet Bolts roaming San Francisco.

Apple, of course, does have ambitions on your next car. Recently, it unveiled the latest version of CarPlay, which goes head to head with Google’s similarly ambitious Android Automotive, to take over more control than just maps, audio and phone calls.

“With our next generation of CarPlay, we're improving the driving experience with deeper integration into vehicle hardware, allowing drivers to control their music, change the temperature and monitor their fuel levels, all from a single integrated platform,” CEO Tim Cook said on Apple’s earnings call in July.

Apple is hoping car makers will figure that, rather than waste precious resources developing their own software, they’d be better off tapping Apple’s system, which can reach deep into the car to offer a wealth of functions such as displaying speed and economy, or provide remote services. With direct control over central processors and links to on-board sensors, autonomous driving would be the next logical step.