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Apple Car Talks With Daimler and BMW Fell Apart Over Leadership Issues, iCloud
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I find it interesting that everyone assumes Apple is aiming for an ultra-luxe car. They have always been about high quality products that function well with premium materials. But that is far more in Lexus/Audi territory than Aston Martin or Bugatti. They just don't go for diamond studded mechanical clocks and seats made out of hedgehog foreskins.
The main question isn't how they will build the car - electric cars are far more basic than petrol cars, with only a few major moving parts. They already have access to battery technology, Tesla have released most of their patents and mundane parts like air-con can be bought in. The main question is where will it be built. Tesla will struggle to fill their own demand, and most other car companies have their own legacy interests. Magna Steyr is an interesting idea but they make fringe and halo cars, nowhere near the volume that Apple would want. My guess is that they will buy a struggling Chinese manufacturer with a large amount of real estate for next to nothing in the upcoming Chinese economic collapse and gut the factory to put in German / Chinese assembly lines.
Even then, I do wonder why Apple would care about the often razor-thin margins of auto makers, especially when the EV revolution will bring in far lower demand for replacement parts.
The main question isn't how they will build the car - electric cars are far more basic than petrol cars, with only a few major moving parts. They already have access to battery technology, Tesla have released most of their patents and mundane parts like air-con can be bought in. The main question is where will it be built. Tesla will struggle to fill their own demand, and most other car companies have their own legacy interests. Magna Steyr is an interesting idea but they make fringe and halo cars, nowhere near the volume that Apple would want. My guess is that they will buy a struggling Chinese manufacturer with a large amount of real estate for next to nothing in the upcoming Chinese economic collapse and gut the factory to put in German / Chinese assembly lines.
Even then, I do wonder why Apple would care about the often razor-thin margins of auto makers, especially when the EV revolution will bring in far lower demand for replacement parts.
I can only slightly disagree with you, I realised how invested Tesla shareholders were in the vision/Elon when he shared some of the patents instead of trying to license them and the share price rose and there no was backlash from investors (analyst said it was not a wise move) but actual investors just stuck with him, I was surprised by that. The feeling I get from Telsa investors (again I could be wrong) is it's 'Elon and us'.
Echo you, the philosophies behind the two companies would make this a painful collaboration, plus Elon strikes me as someone who does not want to be tamed or muzzled and Apple is the opposite and let's be fair Tesla are designing good cars and don't need Jon.
I don't think Apple's has been too stale,
The iPhone 5se was good product and showed Apple listening to customers.
The 12" MacBook (ignoring the single port) is stnning in design and will reshape the industry as the Air did.
We know the MacBook pro is due one heck of an upgrade.
The watch is a few updates away from being a solid IPhone companion and maybe even the best smart watch.
The macpro although ugly and neglected is a geniuine rethink of the desktop.
Now they are looking into cars.
I think what Apple is missing is a Elon/Steve type persona, the reason I feel people don't warm to Tim is he seems very corporate unlike Musk/Steve who both come across as rebels.
I'm just going to say that if they expect me to buy the car, they're going to have to be a helluva lot more transparent about technical specifications than they are with any of their other products. None of this Schilleresque marketing doubletalk -- I don't want to find out the gas tank only holds a gallon.
Uhh...chassis =/= shell. When news broke about Apple potentially using the i3, they were referring to building on top of the CFRP chassis and not the using i3 in its current form.
It sounds like you and I are more or less on the same page. I totally agree with your assessment of Musk, especially visa-vis-a-vis Cook. Like you, I can't see Musk working under someone, especially not someone as corporate as Cook. Musk would want to run the show and as much as I'd love to see Musk at the helm of Apple, that seems highly unlikely.
As for Jony, there's no indication he could pull off a car. Frankly, I think Jony is very overrated. I also think he worked best when he had Steve to help him refine his work. His designs of late haven't been great, a few notable exceptions withstanding. The new 12" MacBook is very sexy. The Mac Pro, on the other hand, is just plain weird and almost feels desperate from a design standpoint. The new Airport line is bizarre. The Airport Extreme and Time Capsule are a very unpractical form factor - unless you want a middling, psuedo-sculptural object on your desk. The old Airport Express design was great. No cord. Easy to transport. I'll never understand why they changed it so that now one has to carry a power cord too.
The Watch, however, is a design dud in my book. For all the hype, Jony basically delivered a black blob that looks like a miniaturized original iPhone or an oversized piece of Chicklet chewing gum. It's so BORING, especially as a piece of jewelry. Pretty sad when you need fancy watch bands to make the watch itself look halfway decent. He's doing a great job refining existing designs like the MacBook and the iMac, but the new stuff is everything from dull to weird to less functional. I just can't imagine him pulling off a vehicle.
I can't see Apple being remotely successful in the car business. It's a huge leap from their core competencies. Look at Tesla. They are laser focused on a few products and they've still encountered their fair share of troubles. Now Apple is going to be a phone company, computer company, media and services company, retailer...and a car company too! Why not? What could possibly go wrong? Maybe they should get into kitchen appliances and dog walking services while they're at it.
I don't see much vision coming out of Apple these days. I think they blew it with Apple TV4. The remote sucks and is yet another example of lazy/bad design on Ive's part (or that of his team). They could have delivered a truly competitive gaming experience, but they intentionally dumbed it down. Even worse is HomeKit, which I think could be a HUGE market. Instead of going all in and giving us first party devices and a seamless, elegant, end-to-end system for automating our homes, they're taking the Microsoft approach, licensing the tech, and creating a (weak) third party market full of so-so devices.
The vision is gone and the car seems like the ultimate act of hubris to me. I really hope they don't go down that path.
I owed a BMW very unreliable built cars I always had it in for repairs - 15,000 miles the transmission went replaced the ignition switch twice , leaking moon roof, among other things, expensive parts too. B.M.W. (Break My Wallet)
Only for the Roadster.
They used a Lotus Elise chassis for the Roadster. All other models (S, X and 3) are all built by Tesla.
Which one? My family has owned three BMWs; two 330Cis and one 850i, and no catastrophic issues in any of them. The 850i has 120K, the 330s each have 185K plus on them.
A moot point anyway, as Apple will undoubtedly use the electric powertrain from BMW i.
And they (Jaguar) were one of the the earliest OEMs to go full-aluminum.
The first mass produced car with a full aluminium body was the Audi A8, which made its debut in 1994.
I think the reason is simply BMW and Daimler are the two greatest car markers in the world. Apple would settle for nothing less.
If Apple chose to work with Toyota/Honda, you'd ask if they were Asiacentrists ... and of course still accuse them of being racists.
Can't really confirm that. But knowing US car dealers' TV ads, I can probably see where this is coming from...