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Apple Cuts 200+ Employees From 'Project Titan' Autonomous Car Team
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Why? I'll take a shot.
Apple could build one million electric cars at a cost of $20,000 each, which would cost it $20B. It could spend another $20B creating a charging infrastructure, and write the software so the cars would know which charging stations were available, and where, and what time of day was the highest demand in a certain area, and then station their cars in that area. Yes, fully autonomous cars might not be viable for another 8 to 10 years, but all Apple has to do is to get the one-way fare down to what that would cost in gasoline, and they've got a customer for life.
By my estimate, Apple could double its revenue with a product like this. Now, that assumes it works, and the cars don't crash or kill people. But only Google, Facebook, Microsoft and a handful of other giant companies have the capital to put such a long-term project into play. Uber? They'll be out of business long before Level 5 automation is viable. There won't be a lot of competition in this space due to the high startup costs.
Apple is great at user interfaces and customer experiences, so this is right up its alley. If it's worried that manufacturing cars is harder than it looks (see Tesla), partner with Ford and/or Google to get it done faster, and create a new joint venture (call it GAF? Maybe not) to spread the risk.
Apple could even wait until Tesla goes bankrupt later this year, and as the Fremont factory is pledged as collateral for the bondholders, it could swoop in and get the factory for pennies on the dollar.
It is incredibly shortsighted for Apple to give up on autonomous vehicles so early in the game, if that's actually what they're doing. Then again, that might be EXACTLY what they're doing: Apple isn't really known for its courage as it avoids high-risk businesses.
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The lifetime salaries of all 200 people is less than what Apple makes in a week and the R&D projects aren't getting scrapped, just put on hold. Apple has enough cash to last for 20 years with no sales.
agree!!! absolutely no idea why Apple cancelled the Airport and Display business, but expand their business to HomePod? just because Google and Amazon did that? Apple was a leader, but now plays a role as follower.
The "KEY" to making battery powered autos ( EV's ) compete against internal combustion engine autos, is making the batteries interchangeable.
When an owner of a gas powered auto runs low on fuel, he doesn't go home and put on a hazmat suit and begin to mix chemicals to create this fuel. He just goes to a gas station where the fuel is already ready to go. He just pull up to the pump, fill it with however many gallons he needs. And 5 minutes later, he's off and running.
It should be the same way with an EV. Pull up to a battery station, roll up a "batter loader" to your car. Slide out your depleted battery onto the loader. Put it aside. Then roll a newly charged battery on another loader, and slide that one into your car. And you're off and running in about the same 5 minutes, equipped with a fully charged battery. In the meantime, your old battery gets charged up at the battery station, ready to go for a future EV customer.
It's all about "standardized quick change battery modules". If every EV manufacture designed their electric car with a standardized battery, the whole EV industry would thrive!
Heck, Apple or Tesla should hire me!
PS - And I'm sure, in the future, the changing of the battery modules at these battery stations will be performed by robots. "BOOM", you're done in 2 minutes!
A chinese manufacturer "NIO" is working on that, as you suggested the "battery station (automatic battery interchange)". they tested some stations along the Peking-Shanghai highway, but i read some blogs and the feedback from the tester is a little bit negative. but at least they tried and i believe they will keep improving.
BTW. they also provide the service called "battery vehicle", image it is a power bank for car
Of course you completely ignore research and development, dealership and other cost in your calculations. As someone earlier on said the profit on cars is very small and no where near the massive profit they make on iPhones and iPads.
I am not going to disagree, but really what else could they say about it.
With the amount of R&D that has been reported to been spent on project titan, they have to say something positive.
Last I heard, Tesla made a big profit in 2018 Q3 and is going to post another profit for Q4 2018 in a few days. Were you born yesterday and missed the news?
Yeah, you’re really breaking news here. You also going to tell me Apple lowered guidance?
Making a profit one quarter doesn’t make the company profitable. It’s lost billions and made 311M most recently. Wow, get the Brinks truck.
Tesla lost over $1.4B in the previous 2 quarters.
Will they be profitable going forward? Maybe, but they need to do it consistently. The only consistency they’ve had is losing money. See attached quarterly profit figures.
Attachments
Seems Tesla just posted another profitable quarter.
And they do expect to go forward with every quarter being profitable (Q1 2019 will be tight because of shipping to Europe and China).
Don’t just look at history numbers without knowing why they lost money in the past (spoiler alert, Tesla was in startup mode and it was, is and will be growing super fast).
You can keep doubting. There are many Tesla shorts that have been doubting for years and still believed Tesla is going bankwupt.
Yeah, a whole $139M down from $311M and a lot of evasive answers about model 3 demand and bearish comments about cost. Back up the Brinks truck! They need about 100 more like it to even break even.
Joke company that will be crushed by BMW, Honda, Toyota, Mercedes and every other great car manufacturer that can make an electric car more profitably.
Wait until the subsidies run out to see if people want to spend $40k on an electric Civic.
Good luck.
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Too bad, I was totally looking forward to having Apple's amazing AI driving me around with siri making funny quips about jaywalkers and cyclist too slow to get out the way
So are computers and smart phones and a million other things. All humans really need are shelter from the elements and a steady supply of food. Everything else can be considered a waste of resources.
No. People who want to take public transportation should be free to do so, and others who don't want to be tied to someone else's schedule or limited destinations or who enjoy driving or any other reason they like should be free to zip along in their cars without interference from busybodies.
Apple, like Amazon, is just a huge investment cash flow machine. PR keeps the green flowing.
Electric cars are hot press items today, and Apple has created a presence. No real product necessary.
Now, for a while, no new powerhouse computer is necessary either.
The cash will flow on for years as they make their Big money... with their money. a2
Electric cars are hot press items today, and Apple has created a presence. No real product necessary.
Now, for a while, no new powerhouse computer is necessary either.
The cash will flow on for years as they make their Big money... with their money. a2