Apple Prepping Electric Car

Earlier this month, Patently Apple discovered a patent issued to "Apple Electric Car, Inc." It was intriguing, but the patent was given to a duo out of Miami, and the tech described in the patent wasn't exactly something Apple would release.

But while that patent didn't come from Cupertino, a team at Apple is apparently interested in electric cars. Sources have told Reuters and The Wall Street Journalthat Apple has "several hundred" employees working on an electric car, known internally as Titan.

This comes amidst reports that Apple is prepping a Street View rival after minivans leased to Apple, equipped LiDAR sensors and cameras, were spotted driving in Claycord, Calif. Others speculated the vehicles were self-driving car prototypes.

Whatever it's testing, it remains to be seen if we'll ever actually see an electric car roll into an Apple press event. Apple, like most tech companies, often experiments with technologies it never brings to market.

Still, according to the Journal, "the size of the project team and the senior people involved indicate that the company is serious."

The paper pointed to talks with high-end car makers and Apple's work with designer Marc Newsom, who has experience with car design.

Though Apple has billions in the bank, its last big "revolutionary" product was the iPad in 2010, and even that has taken a hit in the last year. The Apple Watch is coming up in April, but many Apple watchers are waiting for Cupertino to come up with something truly surprising and dazzling.

Could an electric car be the ticket? The Journal said the car project has enticed many an Apple employee to remain with the company. Apple might be on to something there; a recent report suggested that Elon Musk and Tesla Motors havepoached upwards of 150 Apple employees in recent years.

Tesla, of course, is currently one of the biggest names in electric cars. And it's not opposed to a little competition. Last year, Tesla announced that it will not file any lawsuits against companies that want to use its patented technology for electric vehicles. Tesla and Apple are not strangers, either. In 2014, Musk confirmed that he had informal talks with execs at Apple, but he denied any acquisition plans.