Will Self-Driving Cars Power Apple (AAPL) To New Highs?

Reuters said that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has “outlined” a plan to “train” self-driving car operators, giving an insight into its closely guarded self driving car/technology efforts. Reuters cited documents released exclusively to it by California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

For a while now, there has been tremendous speculation about Apple’s autonomous car technology development efforts, which is apparently codenamed Project Titan. As usual, Apple has refrained from commenting on the matter so far as it loves to maintain secrecy regarding projects it’s working on.

Per latest report from Reuters, Apple’s 41 page application submitted to DMV, CA, comprises a 10 page training plan that includes a document called "Automated System: Development Platform Specific Training Overview." The objective of Automated System: Development Platform Specific Training Overview is "to train safety drivers in various automated driving conditions," Reuters further adds. However, these documents don’t reveal a lot of things, like the kind of sensors attached to the vehicles or the self driving car platform mechanism.

Last week, it was reported that Apple had secured a permit to test self-driving vehicles. The permit is issued to test drive three vehicles (2015 Lexus RX450h models) with two drivers each, added DMV.

Apple’s Project Titan has been in the news since 2014–2015. Initially, it was reported that Apple was working on an “iCar.” There were numerous reports of the company making sound talent acquisitions as well as collaborating with the likes of BMW for the car design. VP of Product Design, Steve Zadesky was permitted to set up a 1K strong workforce for the project.

Later on, the “iCar” rumors lost steam as the project was reportedly marred by conflicts and management troubles. Following this, Apple decided to prune some of its 1K strong workforce assigned to the project. In Jan 2016, with the resignation of Zadesky, things became more blurred. However, reportedly, Bob Mansfield was brought on board to once again spearhead the project in July 2016.

It is now speculated that Apple may not be designing a full fledged car but an autonomous self driving car technology platform.

Apple’s fortunes remain tied to its flagship offering, iPhone, at least in the near term. With iPhone 7 and 7 Plus performing relatively well and the excitement building up for iPhone 8 (dubbed as a super cycle), Apple can breathe easy.

However, increasing competition from cheaper handsets is emerging as a big concern. Apple is under great pressure to introduce new products. Apple Pay, Apple Watch, Apple Music are some of the new ventures undertaken by the company.

Also, revenues from App Store are growing. Apple is also working on developing technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality/ virtual reality (AR/VR), which are fast emerging as lucrative business opportunities. The company’s interest in the autonomous car project is understandable as this is now being labeled as a big business opportunity.

According to Boston Consulting Group estimates, the autonomous car market will be worth $42 billion by 2025 and $77 billion by 2035. Per Statista, the market for fully autonomous vehicles will grow to almost $6 billion while partially autonomous vehicles market will reach $36 billion by 2025.

Self-driving technology gained immense importance in the past few years with tech and auto behemoths like Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) , Ford (NYSE:F) , Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) , Volkswagen (DE:VOWG_p) AG, Daimler AG (DE:DAIGn), Uber and Lyft directing resources to develop this technology.

However, analysts are skeptical about self-driving cars being feasible before 2020, at least.

Zacks Rank and Stock Price Movement

Currently, Apple has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Over the past year, shares of Apple have registered growth of 35.40% compared with the Zacks categorized Computer Mini industry’s gain of 34.86%.

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