Autoblog

"We have been working with Apple on control interfaces."

That's a direct quote from, not Martin Winterkorn at Volkswagen, but Ian Callum, the design director for Jaguar, as quoted by CAR magazine. Callum says Jaguar's new XF's start button "starts to pulsate" when the driver gets into the car. Once running, the car's hidden air vents "rise up" and the JaguarDrive Selector pops up from the console. Actual buttons are kept to a min.

Sounds all very high-tech and somewhat Apple-like. The pulsating start button is very reminiscent of Apple computers' power indicator lights.

So now we have Apple confirmed to be working with Jaguar and rumored to be working with Volkswagen and Mercedes. Another item of interest we came across in researching this post is a Macrumors story which says it heard about the CAR interview with Callum from Macrumors reader -- get this -- Chris Bangle. Could it be? Nah.

Thanks for the tip, Chris!

[Source: CAR Magazine via Macrumors]