Apple are being sued for poaching employees from car battery companies, fueling rumours that they're working on a vehicle of their own.
Apple have found themselves in hot water with electric car battery maker A123 Systems, who are taking them to court over poaching high-level staff, which is enough of a problem, but it has also further served to fuel rumours that they are working on building a car of some description.
According to Reuters, who have gotten a look at the lawsuit filed, it states that Apple began aggressively poaching employees from A123 in June of 2014, and that "Apple is currently developing a large-scale battery division to compete in the very same field as A123".
With Google and other competitors seemingly working on a self-driving car or autonomous vehicles of one type or another, along with the claims in the lawsuit, it's certainly beginning to look like as though Apple are thinking about making a car of some description, although it would be a huge shift for them.
However, they look to be throwing money at it, and as PC Pro point out, Apple's previous products such as the iPod and the iPad were not the first of their type, but rather built on existing models from competitors that were already available in the market.
Further investigation by Reuters showed that it wasn't just A123 who were getting hit by the Apple recruitment drive either, as "a search of LinkedIn profiles turns up more than 60 former Tesla employees now employed by Apple, including dozens of hardware, software, manufacturing and supply chain engineers".
However, Tesla also recently announced their plans to develop large scale batteries that could meet the all the energy needs of your home, which may also be an area that Apple are interested in, making your entire home part of a smart ecosystem in the much talked about Internet of Things. As the lawsuit doesn't specify what field A123 are talking about, it looks as though the car rumours are set to stick around for a while yet as we await clarification.
Via Reuters
