It seems that Apple is dabbling in just about every market these days and the next on their list is the automotive industry. Word on the street (pun intended) is that Apple is building a car. The company is doing its best to keep the project under wraps but considering it’s size it’s going to be hard to keep this one a secret. Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk said it’s an “open secret” that Apple has obvious automotive ambitions.

The rumours first arose in February 2015 when the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple had ‘several hundred employees’ working on an ‘Apple-branded electric vehicle’ called Project Titan.

The tech giant is also rumoured to have teamed up with automotive contract manufacturers and a German paper reported in April that Apple is running a secret lab in Berlin for auto development.

Image Credit Refresher

Apple recently hired Dan Dodge, the founder of QNX, the leading car operating system company. Recent reports also showed Apple’s increase in R&D spending as well as a few minivans outfitted with LIDAR and cameras were spotted in New York and California. One of the license plates was even registered to Apple.

Lastly, Apple invested $1 billion Didi Chuxing, a Chinese ride-hailing service in May which Tim Cook revealed was to “learn more about certain segments of the China market.” However he also added it was also done because “we believe it will deliver a strong return for our invested capital over time as well.”

According to some reports, Apple’s car is expected to have a ship date between 2019 and 2012 but only time will tell.