At the moment it is all just speculation – a sea of rumour and what-ifs, all imagining what might happen if Apple turns its attention to our roads. But it is not the first time we have heard it. There have been reports that Apple has been hiring engineers from electric carmakers such as Tesla and a manufacturer of car batteries, and that they have been working on a top-secret car project for years.

Bloomberg claimed the computer giant wants to have a car in production by 2020. And tech blogger Gruber, who had been dismissive of the rumours earlier in the week, changed his stance after learning recent Apple hires included a senior recruiter from Tesla. "I’ve been pretty skeptical about this Apple car rumour," he said, "but where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And all of a sudden there is a lot of smoke in the air on this one."

Indeed, some analysts believe that cars are the new smartphones. This year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas became a showcase for major carmakers, in some ways overshadowing the Detroit Auto Show that came just days afterwards. On display was tomorrow’s in-car tech as well as autonomous driving technology.

“What we’re seeing is a changing role of mobility in transport beginning to occur,” says Bryan Reimer, associate director of the New England University Transportation Center, and a research scientist at MIT AgeLab. His expertise is transportation safety, and driver – or, increasingly, operator – behaviour. “Car ownership models are widely expected to change dramatically over the next few years, with more car sharing services taking a larger role in mobility. That does bring in the potential for new mobility companies to begin to play an increasing role – such as [rideshare app] Uber and Google.”