Thank you for taking the time to write this article. :)
But I would posit that the reason the AppleCar remains nonexistant is that it was never meant to exist in the first place.
Where is the evidence? We have seen the driverless prototypes driving around the roads of california, yes but are these for an actual car?
Apple is a consumer electronics company and has many different divisions and one of these will be building ridiculous prototypes of different things just to see what works. It is no coincidence that just after the driverless rigs were seen on roads that we see LiDAR integrated into the top-end iProducts; Apple is more likely using these 'cars' as a way of field-testing technologies meant to be integrated into their core product lines further down the line and indeed this is something companies have done forever.
I would recommend picking up a copy of The One Device by Brian Merchant. https://www.amazon.com/One-Device-Secret-History-iPhone/dp/031654616X
It goes into huge detail about all the technologies that went into developing the first iPhone and where the project originated within Apple. The original multitouch prototype was a projector and a large table: if analysts had seen this first they would have assumed Apple was developing some sort of touchscreen dining table to replace your TV!
Ah, but Apple recently hired former Lamborgini exec Luigi Taraborrelli, surely a sign they are designing a car? Why else would you hire a car chassis designer? https://www.tweaktown.com/news/87643/apple-hires-20-year-lamborghini-exec-will-design-apples-electric-car/index.html
Honestly it is probably because the man is also an industrial designer and they currently have an Ive-shaped hole in their design team. Ive started out designing Microwaves and Toilets (no joke!) before he went to Apple. (Analysts: "Apple moves into plumbing biz")
If Apple truly wanted to develop a car they would have done what every company with their cash reserves does: buy in the expertise. In this case the Apple Car ("Project Titan") was started around 2014 at a time when they could have brought Tesla for a paltry $30bn and started at a much higher point on the ladder.
