According to a report by the Bloomberg news agency, in which Hyundai confirmed talks between the two companies, the shares of the car maker on the Seoul Stock Exchange shot up by almost a quarter. Then Hyundai rowed back publicly: Various companies had asked for talks about the development of autonomous electric cars. The discussions are at an early stage, there are no decisions.

Euphoria among investors There was no longer any talk of Apple as a specific possible partner. The euphoria of investors could only slow it down a little, the Hyundai share ended trading with a good percent up. The market value of the group rose to 55, 7 trillion South Korean won (41, 6 billion euros) – an increase of 6.6 billion euros.

Previously, the business newspaper Korea Economic Daily on their TV station reports that Apple wants to work with Hyundai on the development and construction of a self-driving electric car. According to the report, Apple is targeting the launch of the car in the year 2027. In the past few weeks there had been more rumors and speculations about an Apple car.

Apple shies away from the public Apple is extremely sensitive in its business relationships when suppliers or partners want to publicly name the group as a customer. In the case of significant collaborations, discussions about contracts and partnerships tend to be held behind closed doors without explicitly naming negotiating partners before the results are announced.

Cooperation or but only software? A possible entry of Apple into the construction of cars or the development of the technology for it has been closely observed by the industry for years. Experts estimate that the industry could be revolutionized given its size, financial strength and development resources. However, it is questionable whether Apple would actually get involved in the actual construction itself or through partnerships, or whether it would only contribute software and other technology. In the past, Apple had named the latter as the focus. A partnership with a company like Hyundai could give the speculation on the former more fuel.

Possible competitors would be Waymo and Aurora Apple wouldn’t be the first tech company with aspirations in the auto world. To date, Google’s Waymo is considered a leader in the development of software for self-driving cars. The retail and cloud service giant Amazon has invested in the start-up Aurora and taken over the robot car developer Zoox. The driving service broker Uber, on the other hand, recently dropped out of robo-car development and sold its division to Aurora.

The development of technology for autonomous driving is considered to be very costly and time-consuming. Volkswagen invested billions in an alliance with the US automaker Ford in the developer Argo AI. Daimler is working with the US chip specialist Nvidia, BMW is working with Intel and its camera software specialist Mobileye on corresponding systems.

(fpi)