Still they have to deal with repairs, distribution in the USA, warehousing, customer support if the car fails on the road, tow services, etc. Seems too much of a hassle to me for a tech company.
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Apple Continues Hiring Automotive Experts, Possibly for Rumored 'Titan' Car Project
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Still they have to deal with repairs, distribution in the USA, warehousing, customer support if the car fails on the road, tow services, etc. Seems too much of a hassle to me for a tech company.
This makes so much sense! Also Phil Schiller is really into cars. He'd be ecstatic to market and show off something like this. Also I had a ROKR before getting the original iPhone, and if the difference is that big then Apple is going to own 70% of automobile industry profits within five years. Hold on, let me go buy more stock…
That would be awesome. Then Musk joins Apple's board, and three years later Jony Ive goes thermonuclear on Tesla for stealing the Apple Car's designs. Haha, but probably not since Musk is a pretty cool guy. He would make a great leader at Apple. I'd love for Apple to buy or merge with Tesla and make Musk CEO after Tim Cook retires in 2021 (well his contract is up then and he'll be 60. Not old at all but a good retirement age after leading Apple to be the most profitable company in the world. Alternatively if Apple bought/merged with Tesla they could keep the Tesla brand around, much like they did with Beats, and build their electric cars under that brand with integration from all the Apple devices and services. Keep things partially separate but not really.
It would be interesting to see if the existing auto manufacturers would dedicate plant time to a potential rival.
I'd like to buy this car for $50 over invoice. Sorry, Apple doesn't offer any sales on products except maybe on Black Friday. Would you like the 3 year AppleCare for your vehicle sir? We also offer one-to-one training on your car.
Yeah that's why there a 10x more TV brands than PCs, and even the "copy-cat" Samsung has had no problem getting huge shares on the market in a few years.
Ah, rationalization...
This doesn't make sense. At all.
Apple is very LATE on the TV or the graphic or the HDD or the VR segment which are way more important, but it is focusing on developing self-driving cars?
WTH?
Apple is very LATE on the TV or the graphic or the HDD or the VR segment which are way more important, but it is focusing on developing self-driving cars?
WTH?
Tesla is "wildly successful"? LOL -- you must be reading a different financial statement.
No they don't. Every single one of those things can be farmed out to third parties. For example I got 3 years of BMW Roadside Assistance with my motorcycle purchase, and I assure you it's not BMW that shows up if I need a tow.
BMW doesn't even administer the service; I think it's Progressive with BMW rebranding. BMW probably just pays Progressive $20 (or whatever) per purchase and probably has a service level agreement that ensures Progressive's service is up to BMW's standards.
And a one litre fuel tank.... I have to use the 1gb ram jokes up, before the iPhone 6s
Someone over on the Jalopnik web site suggested what Apple is working on is NOT a car carrying passengers, but a fully autonomous vehicle--with no drivers!--used essentially for goods delivery:
http://jalopnik.com/i-have-a-radical-but-possible-idea-what-the-apple-car-w-1719352935
If the technology can be worked out, it could revolutionize goods delivery from the store to the home. And given the rapid advances in autonomous driving technology, its development could happen faster than anyone thinks.
And it can be done because without the need to accommodate any passenger (including the driver), they could substantially cut the weight of the vehicle, since you eliminate the need for a lot of very heavy and expensive passenger protection systems.
http://jalopnik.com/i-have-a-radical-but-possible-idea-what-the-apple-car-w-1719352935
If the technology can be worked out, it could revolutionize goods delivery from the store to the home. And given the rapid advances in autonomous driving technology, its development could happen faster than anyone thinks.
And it can be done because without the need to accommodate any passenger (including the driver), they could substantially cut the weight of the vehicle, since you eliminate the need for a lot of very heavy and expensive passenger protection systems.
I guess they are more into making devices like the Apple Watch capable to remotely control vehicles with a new Apple Development kit for Cars with functionality beyond current CarPlay, as they have HomeKit then AutoKit will be the next thing...
Apple can buy any auto company and do whatever they want to do, specially something totally disruptive in terms of how the product is designed, developed, validated and sold. The auto industry deserves a significant improvement to stay on par with other industries growth and profitability, as wells as producing a significant improvement for the consumers safety and life quality.
Maybe the delay is great symptom that they are ironing out the issues and performing a better job at not releasing to market products with subpar validation and performance issues like many other auto makers do just to comply with an unrealistic launch timeline because the executives and middle management bonuses depend on sales numbers and deadlines and not connected at all with the initial quality, reliability and durability performance of the vehicles.Yeah, well, except they haven't made a single full-year profit yet.
Very curious to see what Apple has up its sleeves though ...
What do you mean by garbage? Have you ever driven or owned any of their vehicles? What do you currently drive? What would you like to buy if you will get a new car next month?
If they follow the same model of traditional auto companies yes it would be a big hassle. But if they offer a better alternative as they do with the Apple Stores they may be successful at it. Leasing may be the best model for commercializations of disposable Apple cars, made obsolete every 6-12 months by new gen features or due to warranty failures to cover replacements without dealing with repairs. Maybe refurbished o reman shops may not be as difficult to deal with than a dealer network...
Apple learned a lot about meeting intentionational regulations across plenty of countries around the world with the iPhone and wireless devices, now the automotive regulations are more complicated to meet and comply with as well as provide potentially ever higher quantity of risks and hazards, as well as a very competitive saturated market and with very limited good suppliers for certain vehicle systems like the restraints. Hopefully we will see a big change soon thefefore many of the existing paradigms become obsolete technology and new players in the automotive world make it happen, seriously Tesla, Apple, Google and any other aggressive and tenacious auto company may make something interesting. As Apple typically do hey learn from the failures of other companies, redefine the concepts and make it "work better".
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I also wonder if Apple will do the Tesla model of only making a few inventory cars and predominately doing custom orders (note Tesla's lead time on delivering a new car). Or if they will do the auto manufacturers route and make a variety of models and send them to dealerships.
I hope Apple jumps in sooner rather than later on supporting Tesla direct sales, there a few states that still require manufacturers to have dealership networks in order to sell cars (cough Texas), which would be something Apple probably doesn't want to deal with.
Of course this is all assuming Apple doesn't do a hybrid or combustion engine, there is still a big jump to get folks to fork out the money for a charging port at their house, and folks still have range anxiety.
I hope Apple jumps in sooner rather than later on supporting Tesla direct sales, there a few states that still require manufacturers to have dealership networks in order to sell cars (cough Texas), which would be something Apple probably doesn't want to deal with.
Of course this is all assuming Apple doesn't do a hybrid or combustion engine, there is still a big jump to get folks to fork out the money for a charging port at their house, and folks still have range anxiety.