Is Apple turning into a real-life “Knight Industries”?
Modern-day, 2015.
Mystery surrounds Faraday Future, a super-secret billion-dollar facility, where a dream-team made of the best automotive engineering and scientific minds, is assembled, and put to work, with unlimited funding, towards a mysterious high-tech vehicle.
It’s unlikely that this amazing car will be capable of leaping over buildings, or be impervious to ground missiles, or even outfitted with high-energy lasers and pop-up mini-guns, but what we do know for sure, according to an Australian news outlet, is that this car will be powered by electricity, and set to compete with Tesla, by 2017.
While we won’t be seeing this vehicle zip through traffic at super-speed, chasing bank robbers, the real-life mystery about Faraday Future, a company named after British scientist Michael Faraday, is still a rather exciting tale.
Some have already advanced the theory that Faraday is actually a front for Apple, or perhaps a subsidiary company that Apple is using to create hype, while at the same time, being free to experiment and work on its own electric car, out of prying eyes, and here are a few clues:
According to reports, the company has already hired 400 employees, with a rate of 10 new hires per week, to reach a goal of assembling a team of 500 high-level experts in the field of design, and engineering.
Some notable hires include the head designer for the BMW i8, a Virgin SpaceX battery specialist, and a former Ferrari interior designer, with more staff coming from Volvo, Google, Ford, GM and even Facebook. By this token, it’s no secret that Apple has an interest in BMW i-series vehicles.
It’s also no secret that Apple has been hiring former Tesla employees. Former Tesla director of vehicle and chassis engineering, Nick Sampson, is currently VP at Faraday, as well as being the only liaison between the company’s mysterious CEO, and the press.
The final clue is that, as the tech giant has already revealed its intentions of building an electric car within the next 5 years, Apple has also purchased vast amounts of land in California, twice as much as what the company would ideally require to build its Spaceship 2 campus, which is indicative of plans to build a rather large facility, which could be the true base of operations for Faraday Future.
One more thing about Faraday, that caught our attention, is that while the company is indeed working on an electric vehicle, the mission statement on the company’s website reads as follows:
“At Faraday Future, we believe the automotive experience should integrate seamlessly with the rest of your life. When creating our vehicles, we began with four wheels but we are re-envisioning everything else. Based in California, our global team of experts is starting with a user-centric technology approach to mobility.”
While in the realm of speculation, “user-centric” technology is a rather big clue, pointing to the company’s focus on in-car entertainment and mobile connectivity, which could mean that if Apple is behind Faraday, plans will likely include deep integration with iOS devices, that may or may not be limited to iPhones, iPad and the Apple Watch.