An iCar to match your iPhone?

It has created phones, iPods, iPhones, iPads  iWatches and now there is the possibility of an iCar. 

Apple employees are said to be tasked with secretly working on a design for an electric people-carrier with the code name Titan.

Although it has yet to comment, sources close to the company told the Wall Street Journal that Apple wants to shake up the car industry in the way it did with smartphones.

Apple executives are said to have met high-end car manufacturer Magna Steyr in Austria and also hired industrial designer Marc Newson - who built a concept car for Ford in 1999.

Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook reportedly assigned vice president of product design, Steve Zadesky, to lead the design group. 

He has a pedigree. Zadesky led the teams that created the iPod and iPhone.

Apple's Chief Executive Tim Cook. Photo: Reuters

But before you book a new parking spot.  It was only last year that an 'automotive research lab' was reportedly established at a secret location in outside Apple’s main Cupertino campus in California.

Google has been working on a driverless car for a number of years and it is not known if the car produced by Titan will also be "handsfree".

Apple already has links with Daimler, Volvo and Volkswagen through its dashboard car system, CarPlay. 

Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, told USA Today: "While Apple is serious about at least experimenting in the car space, it is unlikely that the company will launch anything in the next five years. More importantly, the potential for a car gives investors something... to look at as the next big thing for Apple."

The company was valued at a record-breaking US$700 billion last week. The company has enough funds to play with the idea of the next wave in car technology. 

Hopefully the vehicles navigation does not have the location difficulties Apple Maps first ran into.

Source: The Independent, USA Today