That's right, don't let facts get in your way. You just described GM's prop-up from Uncle Sam. Tesla just got a loan, which should be paid back early.
I'll let you look up "early", in case you don't know what that means.
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Apple May Have Considered Purchasing Tesla, Researching Audio to Predict Heart Attacks
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I'll let you look up "early", in case you don't know what that means.
AppleScruff1
macrumors G4
I don't intend this to an inflaming or trolling comment, but IMO, Apple stopped being Apple while Jobs was still at the helm.
May have explored a potential acquisition?
In other news, Apple may have explored a potential iSuppository, that would send a signal to your phone when you should poop.
You heard it here first.
In other news, Apple may have explored a potential iSuppository, that would send a signal to your phone when you should poop.
You heard it here first.
Tesla still exists as an independent company because of the hundreds of millions of credits paid to it by other car companies as well as subsidies paid by gracious Chinese who having been buying US debt for 42 years. I'm in the 47% 🙄 so I know it's not my money.
If Elon Musk were honest and said "a Tesla Model S is still dirtier over it's life than a Prius... but hey it performs like a Lamborghini and by 2019, a new Tesla WILL be cleaner than a Prius" I would support him whole-heartedly but as it is now, I cannot.
The fact is, Elon Musk sells a fast-growing yet still premature technology as though it were superior. Michael Jordan may be voted the best player in NBA history (I'd go for Magic or Oscar Robertson) but in 1973, at 10 years old, he couldn't take John Havlicek who was in his prime.
The real pioneer will be either the first maker of an EV or the maker of an all electric that is actually greener than a hybrid. Otherwise, Tesla is really a place-holder between the first electrics and future green electrics.
Saying early EV makers were not pioneers because they did not succeed would be like saying Amelia Earheart was not a pioneer because she failed to make it around the world.
IJ Reilly
macrumors P6
AppleScruff1
macrumors G4
What about Bill Russell, 11 championships in 13 seasons and the very definition of team player? 🙂
Back to topic. I don't think you're giving Telsa any credit when you say that early EV makers were pioneers but then claim that the first EV maker that actually makes a car greener than a hybrid is the real pioneer. It's all about the evolution, IMO. We don't get from point A to point Z without a lot of stops and curves in the road. Some day the gas pump will become prohibitively expensive and alternative fuel sources will take over. But it's going to take a lost of twist and turns to get there. The Prius, Telsa, Volt and others are stops on the way. Maybe electric power won't be the big thing in the future. Maybe hydrogen or solar will reign a hundred years from now, who knows.
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There has been talk right here on Macrumors that the iWatch will be tied to the iPhone. True or not, that remains to be seen. And there is also an article here that the speculation for the iWatch has been scaled back from what has been floating around out here in cyberspace.
IJ Reilly
macrumors P6
Just as a point of order, some of the first cars ever made were electric, so it's a little late to call anyone working in this field today a pioneer.
Well it's not really flaming or trolling. It's calling it what it is. They gave up putting the names of techs who built computers on a panel on the side in the early 90s (before Steve came back). They gave up the multi-color logo just after he came back. They gave up the "Computer" name when they released the iPhone.
I mean, it's kind of like the Offspring, Live/Throwing Copper, or Goo Goo Dolls (yes, that's my generation) when they got popular. They were still kind of good, but they lost some of their soul.
I still love Apple, but instead of a marriage of passion where I evangelized to friends, lending my PowerBook for months on end so they'd buy get hooked (it worked) just out of desperation so Apple would not go bankrupt, and at MUG meetings users of a 5 year old Centris and users of a PM8600 would join in fellowship of the MacOS, and we'd celebrate when Apple made a rare quarterly profit of a million or two, to now where it is a marriage of practicality where nothing else better is out there and Apple is familiar, where people I don't even know come up to me and diss me because I still have an iPhone 3GS (all I can afford) and not a 5 or 5S, while Apple makes 10...(cue Dr Evil) Billion dollars.
Still love Apple, but the fame and fortune have gotten to Apple's head. Once the iPods and later iPhones and iPads made Apple "cool" and commercials went from themes of uniqueness or family value to trendy, that is when Apple stopped being Apple. My next computer will likely still be a Mac, but Apple and I need marriage counseling.
AppleScruff1
macrumors G4
Watching the 1984 Apple commercial and looking at Apple today shows how things have come full circle. Apple is now what they once revolted against. They are beyond mainstream today. The company makes a gazillion dollars a year but it seems like the soul is gone.
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That is quite true and something that is always overlooked. At that time electric cars were no where near ready for prime time and the gas engine prevailed. Now fast forward a hundred years or so till today, and EV's and the alternatives are setting the ground work to slowly ease the internal combustion engine off the top of the pile.
dampfnudel
macrumors 603
Next they'll tell us that Apple considered purchasing Whirlpool. Wait, I better be careful and not give Apple an idea.😀
jlc1978
macrumors 604
iPhonemaster5S
macrumors 6502
WTF? Apple buying tesla is a crazy a** idea. Besides I don't think musk would sell it, it's doing too nicely for him.
Mr. Gates
macrumors 68020
Yeah and the " Car side" to the "equation" is like 98%
You overglorified Apple with that comment like it's a 50/50 or something, like they are equal sides.
I don't think so
Marzzz
macrumors 6502
[rich person's toy]
In the USA, leasing was not an option. Believe me, I asked- I could only purchase, with a promise that Tesla would buy it back from me at a certain time. The cost of gasoline is still significantly cheaper in the USA than Europe, so the savings are not as comparable. The Tesla that would be equivalent to my current car in terms of luxury and performance would set me back about $90,000, which is about 50% more than the MSRP of my current car. Finally, I live in the Southwest, where temps above 40 degrees C absolutely cooks batteries, and driving distances are frequently greater than the given range of the current Tesla. I can't depend on it to be my primary car.
I know several people who currently own Teslas, they are all wealthy and can afford to have another car. Still, if they come out with that "BlueStar" $40K Tesla in 2015-16, that may be the time I get one.
In the USA, leasing was not an option. Believe me, I asked- I could only purchase, with a promise that Tesla would buy it back from me at a certain time. The cost of gasoline is still significantly cheaper in the USA than Europe, so the savings are not as comparable. The Tesla that would be equivalent to my current car in terms of luxury and performance would set me back about $90,000, which is about 50% more than the MSRP of my current car. Finally, I live in the Southwest, where temps above 40 degrees C absolutely cooks batteries, and driving distances are frequently greater than the given range of the current Tesla. I can't depend on it to be my primary car.
I know several people who currently own Teslas, they are all wealthy and can afford to have another car. Still, if they come out with that "BlueStar" $40K Tesla in 2015-16, that may be the time I get one.
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melburstein
macrumors regular
Could Apple be interested, not so much in acquiring an automotive division, as in getting Elon Musk (the visionary behind Hyperloop, Tesla, SpaceX and PayPal) to become an Apple executive?
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If you read 9to5mac's report on it, they largely dismissed the reports that it was scaled back in features from rumors. 9to5mac has people in Apple feeding them information, I'm pretty sure they were the first to report on the healthbook app, among other things regarding the iWatch.
I don't care what the spin is or under which of these two administrations, they're both sad. The obvious difference is the current chief spender has cleverly assembled the best group of enablers. Tesla, GM or Solyndra it's all a ruse.
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Don't take it so personally...
Rogifan
macrumors Penryn
What is you definition of what Apple should be? A small niche computer company that has a dedicated fanboy base but isn't mass market?
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And that would just telegraph to the world that Steve left his executive team with no vision and they had to bring in an outsider to provide it to them.
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Ah, but one of his designers, Julian Höeing, previously designed cars for Audi and Lamborghini.
Gudi
Suspended
It lacks the technology to make it usable, present. Tesla has changed nothing about electric cars, except marketing them as racing cars. When you drive for fun only, the economics of the vehicle become unimportant. Also the climate change hysteria has given bragging rights to electric cars in general. But these shouldn't be applied to Teslas in particular. Every society that builds its individual transport around the use of Teslas will suffer from an enormous waste of all kinds of valuable limited resources other than oil.
musika
macrumors 65816
It's a big deal because:
- I see a possibility that Apple is going to find a way to get this into an accessible consumer product that's available on a massive scale.
- The freakin' article is about this, so all I was saying was that it's pretty exciting, more so to me than the Tesla stuff that a lot of commenters were focusing on.
jlc1978
macrumors 604
While it may not be 50/50 I think you are greatly overestimating the car side of the equation and underestimating what Apple brings to the table. It's more than just sticking an iPhone in the dash; rather it's how do you build a data buss that can be used as a three way communications platform between the driver, vehicle, and maintenance tech? Apple has a lot of experience integrating disparate technology into its devices, in one sense the car is simply just another data stream to tap.
The real value in such a partnership would be in looking beyond just the in dash display towards building an ecosystem around driving and connecting it with the home system.
So yes, I think it's closer to 50/50 than you think.
AppleScruff1
macrumors G4
If you don't see the irony in Apple today from their mocking of the computer giant in the 1984 commercial I have nothing to add. 🙂