The iPod has transformed the lives of commuters, shielding them from fellow humans with a wall of sound. The iPhone is helping to make businessmen accessible around the clock. Now the iCar could become the Next Big Thing: essentially an attempt to create an office and entertainment centre on four wheels, further blurring boundaries between work and private life.

The head of Volkswagen, Martin Winterkorn, travelled to California recently to swap ideas with Steve Jobs, of Apple, about the possible launch of an intelligent Beetle. Mr Winterkorn is going to visit the Apple chief again next week as the project gathers pace.

Hans-Gerd Bode, spokesman for VW, who emphasised that everything was still open, said: “Scores of ideas are being kicked around.”

It would be an intriguing marriage of two popular icons. Steve Jobs sold his VW Bulli minibus 31 years ago to fund his fledgeling company, set up in his parents’ garage in Los Altos, and apparently maintains an emotional connection to the discarded VW van.

As for Mr Winterkorn, he seems determined to revive a Beetle-style low-cost car for the masses, with a basic model retailing at about €6,000 (£4,000). The plan is said to be appropriate for environmentally sensitive times, and a return to the origins of the VW, commissioned by Hitler as an affordable Car for the People.

The question is whether the iCar will be merely an upgraded version of this new, small car with a few Apple products to make it attractive for young people, or whether it will be a completely new design.

Car industry leaks say the two businessmen have been dealing with “design and technology” issues, which suggests that a completely new car could be on the cards. The new Beetle may, it seems, be too simple to be converted into a technologically intelligent super car. After all, even the relatively straightforward iPhone is baffling some users.

The incentive for the German and US chief executives to develop the iCar has come from a deal struck by rivals Ford and Microsoft. Ford is planning to introduce an in-car communication and entertainment system, known as Sync, this autumn. It will allow drivers, either by using dashboard controls or voice recognition, to listen to their digital music players or have telephone text messages read aloud.

BMW has also developed, with Intel, a mobile office apparatus for its Series 7, giving drivers access to wireless LAN and to a Bluetooth-enabled printer. Audi, at the higher end of the Volkswagen group, has a system already that shows information from the iPod on the display of the car radio. But that is a long way short of a new Apple-branded super car.

Existing digital car technology can offer a great deal more once the design problems are ironed out. In theory a driver need never be offline, can transfer music from a home PC to his car and can download and edit photographs.“We will soon start thinking differently about traffic jams,” a German motoring commentator said. “They will not be wasted time but rather an added opportunity to work.”

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