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Apple Lays Off 600+ Employees After Canceling Car Project
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I’m not sure where you are, but the Chinese carmakers are DOA here in the States, because they will get zero tax credits due to them being Chinese. The Inflation Reduction Act requires cars and components to come from “friendly” countries in order to qualify.
Apple trying different things is what ruined the company. Generic clunky products, instead of focusing on a few really good ones. Apple has hundreds of billions to play with so using some of those billions to explore potential products that are never released is probably worth it. They may stumble on something amazing along the way, like how Vision is obviously going to be viable eventually as something we'd all use and enjoy. A half baked car, not so much.
I wanna see the concepts. Pssst.. employees.. leak them
EV sales haven’t grown exponentially for sure, but they more than doubled in just the last two years. PHEVs sound good theoretically and they’re cheaper at the moment, but they’re also less efficient both operating as an ICE vehicle (useless battery hampering mileage) and an EV (useless gas engine decreasing range). Their only advantage is the lack of range anxiety. From a consumer standpoint I feel like it’s more of a short-term solution while countries build out their EV infrastructure and the cost of batteries come down imo.
Traditional automakers are pushing back their EV goals because they’re realizing their competitive advantage lies in combustion engine design (in which they have decades of expertise and is dramatically more complex than an EV motor). Any EVs they produce would likely just be a pretty skin built on mostly Chinese EV components and batteries. This would give them little to differentiate themselves from the likes of Tesla and BYD who have their own EV supply chains and EV related tech. That’s not to mention the significantly lower profits from repairs and warranties with EVs. They’re trying to prolong the lifespan their gasoline/hybrid cash cows while they figure out a new strategy to compete with the up and comers.
Especially when many of them are openly saying they predict failure. You'd do much better with a few small teams convinced they can do something great.
I know many will disagree but I think EVs are doomed. They are expensive to buy, expensive to repair and can’t get you anywhere outside the city.
I rented a Tesla from Hertz once. It was a terrible experience. The car was absolutely dreadful to drive and operate. No coasting, every adjustment needs to be found in the large annoying screen, and the worst… no easily fill up. We barely made it back to the airport. Needless to say that the mile remaining somehow only gets you about 2/3 of what it claims.
Oh… and once you include all the battery technology and mining required, they aren’t even better for the environment.
I rented a Tesla from Hertz once. It was a terrible experience. The car was absolutely dreadful to drive and operate. No coasting, every adjustment needs to be found in the large annoying screen, and the worst… no easily fill up. We barely made it back to the airport. Needless to say that the mile remaining somehow only gets you about 2/3 of what it claims.
Oh… and once you include all the battery technology and mining required, they aren’t even better for the environment.
Imagine Apple using the last decade and $10 billion into AI R&D instead?
Sort of funny since Apple don’t seem to like paying others for THEIR patents
They are if you include the full supply and fuel chains in comparisons
EVs are awesome…. Especially as daily drivers.
I’ve been driving one for 4 years now
I’m not going to dispute your opinion of EVs as that’s highly subjective, but it’s certainly not true that the battery and mining negates the environmental benefits. EVs production is more emissions heavy, yes, but 2-3 years of ownership is enough to negate the environmental impact of production compared to if you use an ICE vehicle. And, although we won’t see the benefit of this for some time, lithium batteries are highly recyclable, which means less freshly mined ores will be needed over time as we retire more old batteries. Even on entirely fossil fuel grids, EVs are still roughly twice as efficient in terms of emissions compared to ICE cars running on gas.
No offense, but this is like literally the opposite of what most people tend to say after driving an EV
I feel like we should be past the point where people assume just because you went to college for something, anything, you can write code...
I don’t want to contribute to this becoming an EV debate, so I’ll say that I think BEVs have a place primarily for city driving or commutes. The problem is once you get beyond 200 or so miles. This is where I think the hydrogen car could have taken off. It’s a fast-filling EV with almost no range anxiety. The problem with hydrogen is the lack of infrastructure.
There’s also a big problem with battery EVs: the electric grid. In the United States, we don’t make enough electricity for 50% of the vehicles to be BEVs. We would need significant infrastructure upgrades to our already shoestring electric grid.
Feel bad for all impacted. It wasn’t their fault Apple’s leadership lacked maturity that this shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Hardly DOA. They can copy the Japanese model and build factories in the states. BYD is actually the largest EV bus manufacturer in the US and is reportedly looking into a Mexican factory for the U.S. market. Also, if you look at the prices of Chinese EVs sold in China before incentives, there are many Chinese EVs that would have a competitive advantage stateside even without US subsidies. The lack consumer Chinese EVs in the states is mainly due to Chinese companies not wanting the trouble of getting slapped with tariffs or sanctions in the current geopolitical climate. Not to mention the fact that they’re still ramping up manufacturing capacity just to serve existing markets.
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I agree that hydrogen would be far better. I’m actually good friends with a guy who patented a bunch of hydrogen stuff and then licensed it to several automakers for testing.
Ahh yes.. the vaunted, not politically motivated at all, WSJ “opinion commentary” section
I’ll pass thx
The best the EPA can say is “typically” and they readily acknowledge that “some studies have shown that making a typical EV can create more carbon pollution than making a gasoline car.”
Vision Pro department is next after its colossal failure.
I can, and I'm pretty sure that money and effort was better spent on the car. For one thing, there was a ton of AI research involved in the car project, and it was aimed at much more useful tasks than the OpenAI fact maker upper.
It was a long time ago now, so some of the young-uns may not remember, but self driving cars were every bit as much of a hype bubble in mid to late 2000's as AI is today...
Charging tech over last few years have progressed to the point where you can get roughly 200 miles out of a 15 minute charge on the high end. That can only get better with future generations of charging infrastructure. Some EVs models are also able to get battery swaps, giving you a full battery pack in a minute or so. That said, the lack of charging points themselves is still a big issue in less populated areas.
As for the grid, while it’s true the current capacity won’t support a 100% EV fleet in the U.S., the current growth rate of generation capacity is likely to be able to keep up with growing EV needs. Also consider the fact that EVs tend to charge during off peak hours to save on electricity cost, which means we likely don’t need a dramatically high increase in the necessary peak capacity.
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The best the EPA can say is “typically” and they readily acknowledge that “some studies have shown that making a typical EV can create more carbon pollution than making a gasoline car.”
Which is why I said the entire supply and fuel chain
EVs win and it gets better as we go…an ever cleaner grid powering a larger and larger share of transport (and other things!’
It’s like aftermarket software updates to “society”
ICE is on the way out for many many uses.
It will still be around for others for a long time.
And the tire thing…
Big huge ICE SUVs and Trucks are the same issue
It’s weight, not EVs in any special way
It is certainly the case that ever heavier cars almost certainly produce more tyre particulates. Electric cars are – for now – heavier still than equivalents. But even so, tyre pollution appears roughly comparable between petrol, diesel and electric cars. The other benefits of switching to electric cars – most notably lower carbon pollution – are huge.
Do electric cars have an air pollution problem?
In part seven of our series exploring myths surrounding EVs, we look at claims friction on brakes and tyres will affect air quality