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Fred Lambert

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Fred is the editor in chief and main writer at Electrek. He mainly covers electric vehicles, autonomous cars and ride-sharing platforms.

You can read his work on Electrek, 9to5mac.com and 9to5google.com

You can contact him by email at fred@9to5mac.com

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Apple is reportedly working on electric car batteries with China’s biggest battery maker

Last year, Apple was rumored to be working on an autonomous all-electric car codenamed ‘Project Titan’. The company later confirmed development work on an autonomous driving platform and CEO Tim Cook even referred to it as “a core technology” for the company, but it showed signs of giving up on developing an actual car.

But now Apple is reportedly working on electric car batteries with China’s biggest battery maker.
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Apple bought new battery cell lifecycle testing machines developed by Tesla’s battery research partner

On Electrek today, we reported that Tesla’s battery research partner announced that they managed to double the lifetime of the batteries in Tesla’s products 4 years ahead of time.

They achieved that through a new method to test battery cell longevity and we now learn that Apple also bought the same machines developed through the method.
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Apple Stores, starting in San Francisco, will use new walk-able transparent solar glass

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After our attempt at explaining the 500% markup on Apple’s new solar array yesterday, further information has now confirmed that Apple’s new stores – starting in the brand new San Francisco location – will be utilizing a new walkable solar glass floor technology for electricity generation. According to a document on Onyx Solar’s website, Apple “has decided to commit itself to OnyxSolar’s designer photovoltaic technology for its new stores. The first of these is located in the heart of San Francisco, the company’s home town.”
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Fiat Chrysler CEO opens up on potential Apple or Google partnership to build cars

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The automotive industry is a capital-intensive industry. Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne knows it and that’s why he is open to work with Google or Apple:

“Google can buy every automaker out of petty cash. And Apple — they made a net profit of $24 billion in one quarter. This is nonsense. What are we defending? What?”

In a not yet released 2-hour interview with Automobile Mag‘s Georg Kache, Marchionne discusses the recent rumors of a FCA partnership with Google for self-driving cars and how the automaker wants to position itself in an industry disrupted by the likes of Apple, Google, Tesla and Uber.
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Exclusive: Apple hires former Tesla VP and Aston Martin Chief Engineer for ‘special [car] project’

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has an affectionate nickname for Apple: The ‘Tesla Graveyard‘. “They have hired people we’ve fired,” Musk said. “We always jokingly call Apple the ‘Tesla Graveyard.’ If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple”. He made the comment after being asked about the so-called “poaching war” between the automaker and the consumer electronic giant following the start of Apple’s electric car program: ‘Project Titan‘.

We follow who’s coming and who’s going at Tesla pretty closely at Electrek and it’s clear that the two companies share a lot of former colleagues. Tesla’s senior engineering staff and leadership are full of former Apple directors and VPs, while the Cupertino-based company hired quite a few former Tesla engineers, but rarely any senior leadership… until now.

9to5Mac, in collaboration with our sister-site Electrek, has exclusively confirmed and discovered respectively that Apple hired former Tesla Vice President of Vehicle Engineering and former Aston Martin Chief Engineer, Chirs Porritt, to work on “special projects”, and we know that “special projects” is where Apple’s Titan car project lives.


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