Apple is set to release their long-awaited Apple Car in 2026, with the Apple Truck arriving in 2027. The vehicles were announced at Apple’s annual Apple Fair, where the iPhone 16 with no charging port was revealed as well.
The vehicles are going to cost $20,000 upfront, with a fee charged per mile that the car is driven. Drivers are welcome to put an electronic billboard controlled by Apple on top of their vehicle in order to reduce the fee, although no figures have been announced yet. Many critics argue that the billboard may be taking it a step too far.
“The per-mile fee may be something I can get behind, but a billboard—nah, that’s too much. Tim Cook could display anything he wanted,” said Bilbo Baggins, a tech reviewer.
Baggins’ concern was mirrored by many—no one trusts Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, with any billboards.
“Last time Tim was in charge of a presentation, he put The Office memes on every other slide. God knows what he would do with thousands of billboards at his disposal,” said Margot Marty, an Apple event coordinator.
The per-mile fee itself has yet to be revealed, although it is known that the fee will be variable. Estimates of the base fee range from $0.10 per mile to $0.50 per mile, and the factors associated with the fee’s variability are rumored to include how many Apple products one owns, how many times a month one shames his friends for having green bubbles, and overall likeability (determined by Tim Cook himself).
“Tim is out of his mind—I test drove the car and he charged me $1,000 for the 2 mile drive because he said he didn’t like the way I peel my string cheese. Meanwhile, he literally paid Barbara $5.50 a mile because she let him choose the music they listened to on the drive,” Marty said.
Although very few concrete figures have been released about the Apple vehicles, they are shaping up to be quite polarizing. Whether or not the legality of the variable fee is upheld by the Supreme Court remains to be seen. However, it is rumored that Clarence Thomas has test driven an Apple Truck with Tim Cook, who paid Thomas $200 per mile driven.