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My biggest concern: service. Is Apple going to add full service garages to Apple Stores? Allow third party mechanics to service the vehicle? My next car is definitely going to be electric. I've almost talked myself into selling some Apple stock and buying a Model X next year.
 
didn't read all pages in here so if someone already came up with these then we have the same humour.

threads on MR in 2020:

- updated to iCar 1.1, battery life is garbage :(
- bricked my iCar while trying to restore it! can't get to work/school tomorrow :mad:

- Apple announces the iCar 2.0 with a thin aluminium frame. 85% thinner than before
- a pinecone fell on my iCar and dented the hood. genius bar won't cover the damage.
 
According to Wikipedia, Saturn was able to go from blank slate to a factory, workforce, and car in 7 years. So maybe 5 years is possible, but definitely a stretch.
What other Apple products will suffer in this timeframe due to diverted resources?

And who owned and funded Saturn?

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Doesn`t have to be. There are many ways to increase your margins and still produce a car in US. Example Tesla of course.

How much profit does Telsa make?
 
I do not believe this one iota; there is simply not enough profit in cars for Apple $:apple:$

Do you realize that car business is very profitable? If its wasn't true, there won't be likes of VW, Honda, Hyundai, even Indian, Malaysian, Indonesian and Chinese car makers? GM and Ford had big difficulties becaiuse they were not selling cars meeting demand in time of economic crisis, high fuel prices; but those who are selling smaller, economic cars like Japanese are doing very well.
 
Don't worry. By the time this car would be getting into the launch window, this crowd would have fully turned on Tesla, bashing them and their products like they are the new Samsung. And, a few years later, "we" will remember Apple as inventing the electric car and ripping into Tesla and others as copycats for every little innovation.

If Tesla sues Apple for some patent infringement, we'll rail against the antiquated, outdated, begging-for-reform patent system. But if Apple sues Tesla for some patent infringement, we'll tout the wonderful patent system protecting intellectual capital along with "Die Tesla Die" and similar.

This rumor has just been born. It will take a while for "us" to believe it's really going to happen. But as "we" do, we'll begin to pile up the faults with every other electric car while piling up the rationalization for why the Apple version will be the one and only car anyone could ever need. ;)

All that said though: personally, this is something about which to be excited IMO. If it's true, I'd love to see what Apple could do in terms of building an iCar. And an iCar seems like it has much more "next big thing" punch this this Apple Watch (again IMO). I don't foresee the watch being an iPod, iPhone, iPad-level home run much beyond the Apple faithful and some fashionistas. But I could see an iCar being a monster... a great new channel on which to focus some of the big brains at Apple. Obviously, I hope this rumor is true.

For Apple (or Tesla) to invent the electric car we'd have to go back to the 1800s (maybe Apple invented the time machine ;-). The main reason the electric car failed back then.... You guessed it. Batteries! Same problem as now (only even worse).
 
What's television?


We have DVDs
We had VHS.
No need for TV.
Too much like VD.

We have the Internet.
Much better.

Whats a TV? Its a big computer display in the living room. The only way to monetize that is a) to sell that big 50-60 inch display b) monetize that flow of content into that display. Apple can either do a or b or do it together. Both are not difficult the question if it has high margins enough.
 
I love the way this is the story directly beneath:

Apple has launched a repair program to fix MacBook Pro machines sold between February 2011 and February 2013 that have problems with distorted video, no video, or unexpected system restarts.

I wish they would spend more time and all this money they are apparently sitting on to produce more reliable IT hardware and software first time, every time. I'm not saying their stuff is bad - I buy it - but for what they charge and their cash mountain, it could and should be better still in my opinion.
 
I don't want Apple to buy Tesla for the cars. I want them to buy Tesla for Elon Musk. Apple needs a visionary. Elon Musk backed by Apple's fortune and company organization would be unstoppable!
 
So - just to humor this moronic rumor...

Supposedly, Apple is planning on producing a car, which, to be consistent with Apple's own ethos, it should be a high quality, sleek design, luxury car, right?

Yet, they are poaching employees from GM and other US manufacturers... instead of going after the golden standard in automotive engineering - without debate German manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, BMW, Porsche, etc.

US based manufacturers are among the crappiest cars in the world, and have been for a long time. Personally I wouldn't trust Apple - or GM for that matter - with my life on a highway. Just look at all the embarrassing recalls and class action law suits GM has faced, most recently GM's criminal responsibility in their ignition key scandal.

One thing is to trust a company with a simple phone or computer, and another is trusting a company - with no automotive design or manufacturing experience - with your life, simply because you use a phone made by them... even if they hired GM's incompetent engineers.

So yeah, good luck Apple, with your new POS car project...!
 
So now the NY Times is running with this story too sighting two people familiar with the situation. Good grief.
 
This just went from seeming completely insane and like it wasn't going to happen to fairly realistic and why bother talking about it so much, for me.

The main thing I've been saying is the team is too small and there's no way to finish this project any time soon.

1K people in 5 years? That's plenty of time for Apple to design an entire car from scratch.

But we're talking 5 years - why talk about it at all? Just mention it could happen and stop writing news stories, because there's nothing more to say.

Honestly though, in 5 years, I feel like Tesla will have already finished revolutionizing the car industry. If Apple wanted to beat Tesla to the punch, they should have started on this 3-4 years ago, not this year. Apple will be to Tesla in the EV industry what Samsung has been to Apple in the Smart Phone industry.
 
I do not believe this one iota; there is simply not enough profit in cars for Apple $:apple:$

Do you realize that car business is very profitable? If its wasn't true, there won't be likes of VW, Honda, Hyundai, even Indian, Malaysian, Indonesian and Chinese car makers? GM and Ford had big difficulties becaiuse they were not selling cars meeting demand in time of economic crisis, high fuel prices; but those who are selling smaller, economic cars like Japanese are doing very well.

The profit margin of the 10 leading car manufacturers ranges from around 6% to 10%. Apple's is over 20%.
 
Reminds me of this
g5GnvHy.jpg


Seriously, the title of this news-related post makes it certain that Apple will get into full scale production in 2020. It's not even a thing.

Everyone's already bored of the :apple:WATCH news so they're all now desperately trying to find something newsworthy.

Meanwhile, who knows where Tesla will be in 2020 (that is unless Apple bought them!)
 
They are not going to make any electric car and even if they do it will be to learn about/expand some technology. Don't expect to go to a dealership to purchase an Apple car. Think about it, it's like saying IBM is getting into the cattle business, they purchased xx acres to build a farm to raise cows. Yeah right.

-Mike
 
Already an apple drive by itself car

For those who aren't in the know, Apple already has a car that can drive itself around. Their biggest hurdle is that it's using apple maps to get places and they've lost many of their cars this way.
 
They are not going to make any electric car and even if they do it will be to learn about/expand some technology. Don't expect to go to a dealership to purchase an Apple car. Think about it, it's like saying IBM is getting into the cattle business, they purchased xx acres to build a farm to raise cows. Yeah right.

-Mike

Apple hired Tesla's lead recruiter Lauren Ciminer last September. She was responsible for hiring manufacturing and mechanical engineers at Tesla. What other reason would Apple have for hiring her?
 
The profit margin of the 10 leading car manufacturers ranges from around 6% to 10%. Apple's is over 20%.

High end makers (and sub brands of regular car makers) are in the 10-13% range. Also, dealers take a cut too of about 5-8% for high end cars. The result, even if Apple doesn't take the whole dealer cut as profit (you do need to spend some money on selling the cars) is about 15%. Adding a lot of electronics in the car could boost it to about 20%.

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This just went from seeming completely insane and like it wasn't going to happen to fairly realistic and why bother talking about it so much, for me.

The main thing I've been saying is the team is too small and there's no way to finish this project any time soon.

1K people in 5 years? That's plenty of time for Apple to design an entire car from scratch.

But we're talking 5 years - why talk about it at all? Just mention it could happen and stop writing news stories, because there's nothing more to say.

Honestly though, in 5 years, I feel like Tesla will have already finished revolutionizing the car industry. If Apple wanted to beat Tesla to the punch, they should have started on this 3-4 years ago, not this year. Apple will be to Tesla in the EV industry what Samsung has been to Apple in the Smart Phone industry.

Tesla lost 300M and every auto makers with eV in their books (A lot of companies) are gunning for them. The have to worry about much more than Apple.
 
Perfect. i want my retina windshield wiper, my full uni body car (who wants moving wheels anyway right?!) and rumors say that if you have a passenger sit in the back left corner (the WRONG CORNER) the car wont start.
In other news.... Google today annouced that they are entering the car market with their brand new Googlemobile chocolate 5.2.1.2.3.602.51 which will soon be upbraded to googlemobile strawberry 6.8.7.4.00002 and it will be quite an iCar killer! stay tuned!
 
So - just to humor this moronic rumor...

Supposedly, Apple is planning on producing a car, which, to be consistent with Apple's own ethos, it should be a high quality, sleek design, luxury car, right?

Yet, they are poaching employees from GM and other US manufacturers... instead of going after the golden standard in automotive engineering - without debate German manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, BMW, Porsche, etc.

US based manufacturers are among the crappiest cars in the world, and have been for a long time. Personally I wouldn't trust Apple - or GM for that matter - with my life on a highway. Just look at all the embarrassing recalls and class action law suits GM has faced, most recently GM's criminal responsibility in their ignition key scandal.

One thing is to trust a company with a simple phone or computer, and another is trusting a company - with no automotive design or manufacturing experience - with your life, simply because you use a phone made by them... even if they hired GM's incompetent engineers.

So yeah, good luck Apple, with your new POS car project...!

What does US based manufacturers even mean when Toyota, Honda & Nissan are producing so many cars in the US and have design studios there?
 
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