Here's everything we know about Apple's secretive car project

tim cook
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks at the WSJD Live conference in Laguna Beach, California October 27, 2014. Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

As Tesla CEO Elon Musk said, Apple's electric car is an "open secret."

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Apple has never confirmed the project, but we've gradually collected details of Apple's car plans over time, dubbed internally as Project Titan.

Here's everything we do know:

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Rumor has it that Apple aims to release its electric car in 2019.

apple car
Samantha Lee/Business Insider

According to a September Wall Street Journal report, Apple is accelerating its electric car efforts with a target release date of 2019.

The company reportedly has around 600 employees working on Project Titan, with that number bound to grow.

Apple car
A non-Apple car drives by the new Apple Store on October 21, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois. Brian Kersey/Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

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There are reports of it being developed in a secret lab in Berlin, Germany.

Berlin skyline
Wikimedia Commons/Bleppo

German publication Frankfurter Allgemeine reported that Apple is running a secret laboratory in the middle of Berlin to develop the car.

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But Apple could also be looking at building the vehicle — widely referred to as either the Apple Car or the iCar — in Vienna, Austria.

vienna
Andrew Nash / Flickr

That information also comes from the Frankfurter Allgemeine report.

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There are also facilities in Sunnyvale, California that are thought to be dedicated to Project Titan.

sunnyvale facility apple pepsi
Google/BI

Apple actually leased a 96,000-square foot former Pepsi bottling plant in Sunnyvale in November (pictured above), prompting speculation that the tech giant is expanding its Project Titan facilities in the California city.

Source: Silicon Valley Business Journal

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It's also worth noting that Apple "basically owns an entire hill in Ireland" where it may be working on the car.

Apple Cork Ireland
Apple Operations International, a subsidiary of Apple Inc, is seen in Hollyhill, Cork, in the south of Ireland May 21, 2013. Ireland said on Tuesday it was not to blame for Apple Inc's low global tax payments after the U.S. Senate said the company paid little or nothing on tens of billions of dollars in profits stashed in Irish subsidiaries. REUTERS/Michael MacSweeney

The Irish Independent reported in March 2015 that Apple had plans to expand its factory in Holyhill, Cork (pictured above), which got a roughly $340 million investment some time in 2014. Job listings for the factory hint it's being used for automotive development.

Source: Irish Independent

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The tech giant has also inquired about using GoMentum, which is a testing station that's been used by Google and Tesla.

gomentum
YouTube/Acura

Above you see a driverless Honda getting stationed at GoMentum.

Source: Business Insider

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Ok, so there's a lot of places that could be housing the project, but what about the car itself? There are reports that the prototype Apple is working on resembles a minivan, but that could very well change.

Apple Car Graphic and Apple Watch Graphic
Skye Gould/Business Insider

We have yet to get any real insight as to what the Apple car will look like.

Source: WSJ

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It'll probably be very connected. “When I look at the automobile, what I see is that software becomes an increasingly important part of the car of the future," Tim Cook said of cars of the future in October.

Apple CarPlay
MacMixing

He wasn't speaking about the Apple car, but cars generally. Still, his comments have been seen as hinting to the features Apple will work to incorporate in its electric car.

"If you listed out the 10 top things you love about the car, [the interface] would probably not be on the top 10 list," Cook also said.

Source: WSJD Live Conference

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In addition to being electric, the car could also be self-driving.

apple car
Blake Patterson / Flickr, CC

"It's a software game. It's all about autonomous driving," an automotive source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The rumor that the Apple car could be autonomous is further supported by comments an Apple source made that the car "will change the landscape and give Tesla a run for its money."

Elon Musk
AP

Source: Business Insider

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And we know that Apple has met with officials from California's Department of Motor Vehicles to discuss the state's regulations for autonomous cars.

dmv midtown
The newly renovated DMV office in Midtown Manhattan. Willow J./Yelp

Source: The Guardian

But Apple has reportedly had a difficult time getting an automaker to help develop the car, with BMW and Daimler rejecting the tech giant's offers.

Apple Car 2
Business Insider

BMW and Daimler were both reportedly in talks with Apple to develop the car, according to an April story by the German news organization Handelsblatt.

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Although there are reports Apple may be teaming up with vehicle engineering and contracting firm Magna, which is based in Vienna, Austria.

Apple Car 1
Mike Nudelman/Business Insider

That doesn't seem too far fetched considering those rumors we mentioned earlier about the Apple Car getting built in Vienna.

Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine

In the meantime, Apple has hired quite a few automotive experts, like Tesla's vice president of vehicle engineering Chris Porritt, pictured below.

Chris Porritt
YouTube/Tesla Model S

Apple also recently hired David Masiukiewicz, formerly Tesla's senior CNC programmer for hardware prototypes, and Kevin Harvey, formerly Andretti Autosport's CNC machine shop supervisor.

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Tesla's Elon Musk has even commented on how many employees have gone to work at Apple.

Tim Cook
Getty Images/Stephen Lam

"We always jokingly call Apple the 'Tesla Graveyard.' If you don't make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple. I'm not kidding," Musk said.

We'll have to wait to hear more about Apple's car project.

Apple Self-Driving Car
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