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Summary
- Apple Inc is reportedly planning to enter the autonomous vehicle industry by 2024 with a self-driving passenger car.
- Velodyne Lidar stocks jumped almost 21 per cent on Monday in the wake of the Apple news.
- If Apple is successful in launching a self-driving car, experts believe that the company could end being a major rival for Tesla Inc.
Stocks of Apple Inc (NASDAQ: APPL, APPL:US) picked up steam after reports of the former launching self-driving cars by 2024 made headlines on Monday, December 21. On the back of this news, autonomous tech maker Velodyne Lidar Inc (NASDAQ: VLDR, VLDR:US) also saw its stock shoot up on Monday.
Media reports claim that Apple Inc is planning to enter the autonomous vehicle industry by 2024 with a self-driving passenger car. Now, experts on the matter are wondering aloud if this could make iPhone maker a competition for Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA, TSLA:US) in the driverless vehicle landscape.
Let’s these companies further to understand their prospects better:
Apple Inc’s Autonomous Car Dream
Apple Inc is yet to make an official statement regarding the matter, but sources quoted by media portals claim that the company’s self-driving car could include inhouse battery technology.
The Silicon Valley giant initiated its automotive endeavors around 2014, naming the plan ‘Project Titan’. But Apple reportedly dropped the idea at some point, only to return with reassessment. In 2018, former Apple member Doug Field returned to the company to oversee Project Titan after experience at Tesla. Field let go of about 190 team members in 2019.
Apple stocks gained a little over one per cent on Monday. The shares shot up over 54 per cent this year and over 76 per cent in the last nine months since the March lows.
The stocks are currently priced at US$ 128.23.
©Kalkine Group Image
Velodyne Lidar’s Stock Price Growth
Velodyne Lidar Inc, a sensor technologies provider for autonomous vehicles, saw its stocks jump almost 21 per cent on Monday in the wake of the reports claiming Apple’s self-driving car venture. Since its stock market debut in September 2020, Velodyne Lidar shares have climbed nearly 28 per cent in three months’ time.
The stocks closed trading at US$ 24.68 on Monday.
Will Apple Vs Tesla Be The ‘Clash Of Titans’ In Future?
If Apple is successful in launching a self-driving car by 2024, experts believe that the company could end being a major rival for Tesla Inc. And Apple, as a smartphone maker, has a history of decimating its rivals (i.e., BlackBerry Limited).
All new cars manufactured by Tesla come with autopilot features, although a full set of self-driving capacities lie in the future. Tesla's Autopilot AI team is currently said to be working on the technology of fully autonomous vehicles.
Earlier in October this year, Tesla experimented its "full self-driving" software with a small test group on public roads. The company reportedly even had plans of rolling out the software to about a million electric vehicle owners by the end of the year.
Tesla stocks slumped by about seven per cent on Monday, around the same time when the company debuted on the S&P 500 Index. Tesla is reportedly the biggest enterprise to be included to the benchmark index.
The shares, currently priced at US$ 649.86, zoomed over 154 per cent this year.
Tesla currently has a market cap of US$ 616 billion, while Apple values at about US$ 2.18 trillion. So, if a competition does come to play, the clash could potentially be notable one.
