Why Apple Is 'Definitely Understanding The Car'

Numerous reports this week have stated how Apple Inc. AAPL is poaching employees from Tesla Motors Inc TSLA and from electric car battery maker, A123 Systems, and building its own battery division. This is leading many to speculate that an Apple car can soon be a reality. Re/code's co-executive editor Kara Swisher was on CNBC Friday to weigh in on this.

Will Apple Car Be A Reality By 2020?

“I don’t know, I don’t know if they are making a car, if they are making a dashboard or if they are just into the battery stuff which is super important to their phone,” Swisher said. “I'd like them to get the Apple TV out first. I am not clear, I mean I think there’s a lot of reports and I am not certain, there was a great essay by Jean-Louis Gassée, who I love, who we think is a great essayist, saying the Apple Car is a fantasy.”

“I think they are definitely understanding the car. I mean I always say the car is the first mobile device, if you think about it, and so the car is going to be an important place for a lot of Apple products to be integrated into and especially when you not move beyond the electric car to these self-driving cars and I think that’s the real game is what happens when those start to really become interesting and they are interesting to me already and I think electric car is a stop along the way to the self-driving car.”

Are They Working On Improving Batteries?

“Yeah they have to, everybody has to get into batteries,” Swisher replied. “That’s the one area that hasn’t innovated as much as everything else has and it’s the thing that’s sort of the gating factor here is the ability to create these longer lasting batteries and everyone’s working in that area.”