Seeing Apple Car concepts that look like real cars makes it seem more real somehow

Apple Car, or Project Titan for those of us who have been around longer than we care to remember, is something that has long been simmering beneath the surface at Apple. iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and more have come and gone since we first heard about Project Titan what seems like a lifetime ago. We've known about it for years yet, somehow, it's felt to me like something that will never happen. Something that Apple will test and ultimately, ditch.

Until now.

It hasn't helped that the Apple Car concepts we've seen over the years have been overly futuristic. Spherical wheels, fully autonomous, no steering wheel – that kind of thing. That all makes Apple Car seem impossibly far away from being a thing we see driving the streets of our home towns. But today saw the arrival of new concepts based on real cars that are around today. And all of a sudden Apple Car is something that could exist. Because it doesn't need to look like it came out of an episode of Star Trek to make waves.

Apple Car, when it arrives and regardless of the form it takes, will change things. I don't expect it to completely drive itself, at least not on day one. But it'll have some funky features, that's for sure. I'm most hopeful that Tim Cook and company have been making lists of things that irritate them about their current cars, having engineers pick away at them until they're fixed. Like climate control interfaces that confuse. Or seat controls that don't work the way you expect. Maybe even a new material for the seats that makes them more comfortable without making them look crappy.

All of those things and more could come to fruition. But the car, from the outside, will surely look more like something we're driving around today than anything we've seen in concepts before today. That, somehow, just makes Apple Car feel a little bit more real than ever.