real-life apple concept car drives around as handmade wooden vehicle built from scratch

functional enough to cruise around, the wooden vehicle is complete with a steering wheel and light indicators to alert other drivers on the road.

matthew burgos August 13, 2024 4 min

Apple concept car by Truong Van Dao of ND Woodworking Art

Truong Van Dao of ND Woodworking Art is back with another handmade wooden vehicle he has built for his kids. This time, he interprets an Apple concept car into a real-life, functional wooden ride that drives around with an open top and a steel frame covered in timber. The raw finish of the wood glistens in the light through its varnish, and strips of neon green lights on the sides glow to alert other drivers on the road. The two-seater handcrafted Apple concept car is complete with a steering wheel as well as an armrest between the driver and the passenger, still made of wood. It’s not an Apple concept car coming to life without the brand’s logo.

Truong Van Dao crafts the apple from wood. He places it on the rear of his wooden vehicle, lighting up alongside the strip of beam just above it. He also puts the logo on the surface of the hood as well as in the center of the steering wheel. For the dashboard and the control panel on the armrest, he cuts out photos of a typical iPhone menu display. He embeds them in a molded container and mounts them in their positions. Then, he switches on the light, so they appear animated. This isn’t the first time Truong Van Dao has created a vehicle from scratch, given his wooden Tesla Cybertruck and a time machine-looking vehicle.

apple concept car wooden — all video stills courtesy of ND Woodworking Art via Youtube

Functional wooden vehicle with a hypercar-like design

There have been reports about Apple designing its own and first self-driving electric car. In the end, the company scrapped the project dubbed Project Titan. Due to this, the 2,000-person team working on the project has been moved to the artificial intelligence division of the company to focus more on generative AI work, according to a Bloomberg coverage. The report also mentions that it has been a decade-long effort for the team. With these news stories in mind, Apple fans have tried their hand at designing their interpretation of the brand’s concept car.

Industrial designer John Mauriello has already used DALL·E 2 to generate his Apple concept car. His prompt was ‘minimalist sports car inspired by a MacBook.’ The AI software created a hill-like vehicle without doors and windows. Looking at this design, it may appear similar to what Truong Van Dao of ND Woodworking Art handcrafted around the wheel area. For its wooden frame and rear, his Apple concept car is comparable to a hypercar design. This shows through its sloping-down and vacuum-like rear. So far, the car is only a personal project of the designer.