They are innovative to some extent. What are they doing that is so different from what some other company is doing?
Here's the big question:
'What are Apple going to bring to the party?'
From the other stories that have been posted with regards to the Apple car, they've been in discussions on basing it on an existing chassis and powertrain from another automaker. If they are to be believed, Apple are looking to create a new top hat on an already existing platform. There's really nothing groundbreaking in that.
If Apple want to partner up with someone on this, they really have to bring something to the table. The vehicle market isn't one that's rapidly expanding, and Apple (Or anyone else) entering the market isn't going to grow it by any significant amount, if at all. Apple want a vehicle platform ready made (To engineer and tool, we're talking billions), to which they'll add a new shell onto (Slightly more complicated than that, but essentially the underpinnings are identical), they want all of the data, and they want a slice of that automaker's pie, in return for some sales that will be relatively low margin.
When it comes to trying to identify suppliers for components for iPhones or iPads, it's an easy sell. Supplier x can have an order for 10 million fingerprint sensors or for none, but when it comes to vehicles, it's not an area Apple can throw it's weight around so easily.
Rather than BMW they'd probably be better off sniffing around FCA, who need the investment and will sell their grandmother for a dollar, although I don't know how far along the road they are in electrification, or they have to go the whole hog and engineer a vehicle from scratch and more than likely go to a contract manufacturer, which is far from Apple's core business of slapping iOS or a variant thereof onto a different sized screen in a different shiny case.
