I look at the joint project, the 'prototypes' driving the streets and the hiring of designers and I see one pattern emerging: There isn't one.

The 'prototypes' were likely built by VW as a way for APple to field test technology like LiDAR that eventually finds its way into consumer electronics products. What better way to hide the fact you want to be the leader in AR devices by disguising it as a car?

The hiring of designers? Apple has been pretty short on industrial design talent since Ive left and took half the team with him. The way Tim Cook runs things is more like car manufacture than the Apple of old, where the designer works with the engineers in saving money rather than the engineers having to innovate like crazy to squeeze things in to the latest 3mm chassis.