Apple Car's Decade of Development and 'Failure' Detailed in New Report

[JPack]

The Verge made fun of the reports of the car design but seems clear this wasn’t meant to be a sedan or SUV that someone drove. What I don’t understand is how it took the company this long to realize FSD is nowhere close to being on the horizon.

At the end of the day, Apple is only good at software and chips. Other hardware? Not so much. They don't make the batteries, chassis, or display for iPhone.

For a car, power efficiency of the chips doesn't really matter. And without FSD software, it has no differentiator between it and any other EV.

Apple probably realized FSD was nowhere ready. But without FSD, the project is dead.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

2. Then, was the iPhone a story of indecision, or what? It started as an iPod with a dial in the clickwheel!

That was a prototype. Something they never achieved on the iCar.

 

[Kevin2055]

Like I said, already expected.


Only 8.2%? Too bad then. It only proves my point after all.

It’s increasing exponentially every year.
Your claim of bad quality is baseless.

 

[ghostface147]

Good read. Maybe they would’ve succeeded if they tried for level 2 like Lynch mentioned instead of level 5. I think the Apple campus shuttle would’ve been a cool idea.

 

[sunny5]

It’s increasing exponentially every year.
Your claim of bad quality is baseless.

And you are being clueless with what you are saying. I'll pass then.

 

[k1121j]

1. Apple has no technology to build a car. I mean literally, the car technology is not simple but extremely complicated and requires different types of technology that Apple does not have.

2. Nobody wished to outsourcing for Apple. They all know how thinks work and they seriously hate how Apple treated them.

3. It's just a stupid move from the beginning and a lot of experts already expected their failure 10 years ago. Nothing new.

Experts also said the iPhone would fail same as some said it world be a smash. It’s all speculation it doesn’t make them fourtune tellers

 

[JPack]

You can’t compare a self driving car to any of those products.

Reminds me of Foxconn CEO's claim.

"If we can make iPhones, why can't we make EVs? It is an iPhone with four wheels." 😆

 

[subjonas]

I bet I could have done it. How hard could it be?

 

[k1121j]

I would have bought an Apple car even if it wasn’t self driving. They should have kept going.

 

[DBZmusicboy01]

Steve rolling over in his grave over Apple’s current shenanigans.

 

[patlee2000]

They should consider acquiring DJI. Drones are the future, not cars.

Interesting take. Especially that it would allow them to start small (literally) with the current consumer business model (recreation, camera to capture the world etc... but more user friendly). It could be paired to Apple Vision Pro. Then tap the B to B potential with delivery (packages, food etc...) and filming. Finally use that learning to move to the transport side (A.K.A the flying car). There are obviously some hurdles (sounds, public perception etc...) but it's a lot less CAPEX then a car.

 

[sunny5]

Experts also said the iPhone would fail same as some said it world be a smash. It’s all speculation it doesn’t make them fourtune tellers

Car is totally different. End of the story. It's not even a computer unlike iPhone, Mac, iPad, and more.

 

[sunny5]

They should consider acquiring DJI. Drones are the future, not cars.

They cant. CCP wont allow that.

 

[dannyyankou]

Hopefully watchOS will get more meaningful updates now that Kevin Lynch can dedicate all his focus on that.

 

[chouseworth]

It’s amazing that one of, if not the richest companies in the world can’t do this, but so many new EV companies have started from nothing in a relatively short space of time.

Not amazing at all. Business history is replete with startups developing and implementing the next big thing. They can be laser focused and not distracted by thousands of other business priorities.

 

[patlee2000]

Oh they hold many very interesting patents that came from this project…but very clearly can and will be applied elsewhere.

It's already happening. Some of the camera and sensors developed for the car also went to the Apple Vision Pro. The software is going to the next gen of Car Play. Some AI language model they built for self driving will be coming to the AI tools Apple will unveil in June at WWDC.

 

[Rogifan]

I truly think it became a skunkworks division that did a ton of various R&D (judging from the patents). It may have started with a focus on cars but it seems to have morphed into the equivalent of a Bell Labs basic R&D project several years back.

Lotta cool stuff regarding Smart Fabrics and transparent display tech ended up getting patented from Project Titan.

The most interesting thing about this how long it went on and the indecision on Tim Cook’s part. It’s clear the Vision Pro is something he’s passionate about. One doesn’t get the sense he was passionate about the car project yet he didn’t really give leadership any direction and took way too long to kill it.

 

[macduke]

The project was also a failure, at the highest levels of the company, to settle on one thing and do it.

Steve Jobs was apparently first to raise the idea of Apple building a vehicle

I think that's a big problem for Apple today. Steve Jobs would've been decisive in all aspects of this project.

This really sounds like a vehicle that would've redefined the automobile, but it sounds too far ahead of its time. Apple needs to focus on the science and software behind such an ambitious product first, and that's only part of why they are pivoting so hard to AI. I feel like Apple, all along, has wanted to design products with breakthrough AI, they just didn't realize it, and they tried to brute force it the old fashioned way. Just look no further than Siri and the way that thing is engineered under the hood with basically tons of case statements.

They crack the AI nut first, let the technology mature, then they can build their "But what if your iPhone could drive you places" vehicle. I mean, the description of the vehicle sounds amazing, unless you like actually driving. For that, get a Porsche. This thing is basically a private train that doesn't need rails and is all about passing the time through an amazing entertainment system.

Full self driving is still a way off. And I mean full, not limited to some geofenced portion of a city that has been fully scanned. I mean anywhere. I mean when you're on vacation in Utah and need to go down a dirt trail to see an arch. Or when you're driving up a gravel road through the mountains to getaway in a little cabin with your wife. Or when you need to visit your grandparents out in the country. And it must be 100% rock solid. Like driving up Pike's Peak with no guard rails and sheer drop offs kinda solid.

 

[aj_niner]

You can’t compare a self driving car to any of those products.

You can based on structure, framework, workflow, etc.

The decision makers for Apple Car was wrong.

 

[Kevin2055]

And you are being clueless with what you are saying. I'll pass then.

0.5% in 2019, 3.9% in 2021, 8.2% in 2023. Very obvious, isn’t?

 

[HiVolt]

It seems like Apple was cocky enough and thought they could reinvent the car like they did portable music player and the mobile phone...

Except there was one problem. The man who achieved those things was no longer at the helm.

 

[GermanSuplex]

Hard to know at this stage if the product was a waste or not. Did the research and development they put into this project assist them with other goals? Did they learn something valuable from it?

I'm interested in stories like this, I'd be interested to see if the project was a total bust, or if there were other things that arose from it.

 

[boswald]

What an absolute shame. Even though I could never afford the car, I would’ve liked to see it through and on the road.

 

[frozen220]

Well at least they have the tax write off… wait…what?? they don’t pay taxes?!

 

[Kevin2055]

I guess Apple need to make a TV set next, 8K OLED, 10000nits HDR, built-in 8K face time, Wifi 10c, Dolby xxx, pairing with up to 20 HomePods, starting from $9,999 with optional stand.