New Delhi: Apple was not having Steve Jobs reigning when it started working on its first car, but the he was keen to build a futuristic vehicle.
According to a report by the The Guardian, Jobs had met with the creators of the secret V-Vehicle prototype back in May 2010. The prototype was a small, lightweight car powered by gas that was designed to sell for just $14,000 (Rs 9.3 lakh approx).
The V-Vehicle was 40 percent lighter than a usual car and made out of polypropylene and glass fiber.
V-Vehicle inventor Bryan Thompson got a mail from Jobs himself to discuss about his prototype. He flew all the way to San Francisco to show off the car. The car was taken to Steve Jobs’ house and he had spent 15 minutes sitting inside the vehicle telling everything that had to be improved.
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Thompson in a report said that he had learned more about plastics during those 15 minutes than he did during his years in design school and the auto industry combined. Jobs also gave him tips to improve the car’s exterior.
Even after all this unfortunately, the V-Vehicle failed. But it seems like Apple is using a lot of Thompson’s ideas in the Apple Car. The difference so far is that the Apple car will be based on electricity and will not at all be cheap.
Also many of Thompson’s ideas are being used by the more progressive car designers, which include BMW’s i3. It was the first car to expose fibre-wood in its interior and also Tesla whose recent Model 3 announcement focussed on super-lightweight interiors to counteract the use of heavy batteries.
