Speaking at the Wall Street Journal's WSJDLive conference this week, Cook talked of the growing importance of software in the car of the future, the rise of autonomous vehicles and the shift from an internal combustion engine to electrification.
"It would seem like there will be massive change in that industry, massive change," he said. "You may not agree with that. That's what I think.
"When I look at the automobile, what I see is that software becomes an increasingly important part of the car of the future. You see that autonomous driving becomes much more important."
He declined to respond to published reports that Apple is developing an electric car that might hit the road as soon as 2019. Cook said that, in the short term, Apple is working to bring the ‘iPhone experience’ to the vehicle through CarPlay, its in-dash system that creates a way for users to access their iTunes music collections or get driving directions from its mapping software without touching their phones.
"We’ll see what we do in the future," he said. "I do think that the industry is at an inflection point for massive change."
