You laughed at us when we first imagined the Apple Car in 2016. "It's too podlike and not exciting enough to wear the Apple logo," you complained. But look who's laughing now. Because the pod, for better or worse, is the future of automotive design. Just peek at the likes of the Canoo Lifestyle Vehicle or the Cruise Origin or the Amazon-backed Zoox, each of which is essentially a stylized passenger cell. The reasoning is simple: simplification. With compact electric motors instead of bulky internal combustion engines and no need for steering columns or gas and brake pedals, our projected autonomous future strips down the automobile to its most basic elements, a concept Apple has for decades applied to everything from cell phones to wristwatches.
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