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Apple Recruiting Automotive Experts to Work in 'Top-Secret Research Lab'
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I dont think it is a self driving car or electric car. The first thing Steve did when he came back to Apple was kill projects that didnt make sense and focused on a small focused set of project. Cars in my opinion would completely unfocus Apple in my opinion.
How the heck do you keep "working on a car" secret? Just the sheer amount of space you need to do the work makes it hard. Then you need a whole new slate of guys who are completely unlike the engineers you normally hire. Certainly once you get to the point of having something approaching a protype, the cat will be out of the bag.
Or wait, now we know why the new office building is in a circle. It is actually a race track!
Or wait, now we know why the new office building is in a circle. It is actually a race track!
It will be flat and everything soldered with tamperproof screws.
Crosscreek out.
Only serviceable by Apple.
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You realize Steve is dead, right? He's not at Apple anymore...
The iCar. Designed by Apple in Cupertino. Assembled in China. FedEx are going to need bigger planes.
"Sr. Mechanical Design Engineer" Job Title
"Sr. Mechanical Design Engineer" Job Title as well as other automotive-related titles were added today to jobs.apple.com
"Sr. Mechanical Design Engineer" Job Title as well as other automotive-related titles were added today to jobs.apple.com
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I believe all iPhones are currently serving that purpose now. Your phone pings the cell tower revealing that it is moving at 40 mph. Apple now knows you must be in a car. If Apple is getting dozens of pings along the same path, then this must be a road. Once a road is established, then it gets information about normal speed. When the pings are moving slower, that must mean traffic.
If you've got the money, you can buy the knowledge you need to make the best car ever designed. It's possible. Lets see what this brings. Electric cars are underdogs. It's time to change that.
Tesla took 6 years from when the company was incorporated (2003) until they began selling their first cars (the Roadster in 2009). And the only thing they did for those 6 years was work on that car.
So I expect Apple would similarly take several years before unveiling a car of their own.
The fact is, Apple helped revolutionize the computer industry and a number of subsequent technologies. Would it be so hard to think that they could do the same for the automotive industry? And wouldn't it be awesome?!
So we get these rumors (BI, Mac Observer and now FT) and earlier this week on Tesla's earnings call Elon Musk said Tesla's market cap could be equal to Apple's current valuation within a decade. I don't think its a coincidence.
Unless this is all just a massive head fake on Apple's part...
Unless this is all just a massive head fake on Apple's part...
Why not just buy Tesla? After the hit their stock took this week, Tesla is about $25B. They've already done all the hard work of launching actual vehicles and have a decent pipeline. Apple has the money to buy them out. Buy them, keep it as a totally independent division. If they had >$3B for a friggin headphone company, surely a car company would be worth the cost? Not only would Apple have a strong foothold in the electric car world, they can leverage Tesla's upcoming battery factory and manufacturing. It's definitely crazy, but if Apple plans to get into the car business, I'd rather they not try it from scratch on their own.
That's not really comparable. The iPod was similar in design to phones of the day, and essentially everyone expected Apple to release a phone. Indeed, many people were surprised it took so long.
They have no current product that's similar to a car upon which to build. Indeed their competancy extends only to the computers running the vehicle, literally everything else either has to be learned through R&D or purchased through talent and corporate acquisitions. They have the money, but why would they want to? The margins on new cars are paper thin. It's a tough sell.
This, I think, is a lot more likely. There's blood in the water in the vehicle OS market. Blackberry, of all people, provides an OS called QNX that's installed in nearly all "smart" vehicles, and its no secret Blackberry's fortunes are on the decline. There is absolutely an opportunity for another manufacturer to swoop in and gobble up all their market share with an easier-to-use product.
Further they could build in support for the kinds of sensors we see on that van, essentially offering manufacturers a turn-key smart vehicle solution with support for automated cruise control, lane change assistance, and the like. That has the potential to be huge.
If I were a betting man, I'd put money on Apple making a play to push QNX out of the market.
Plus, Ford has dropped Microsoft from their Sync 3.0 system. I agree that a software platform for cars is much more likely than an actual car, but how does that explain the hiring of actual mechanical and automotive engineers?
While that's true, when Apple entered the phone industry they basically transformed phones into very portable small computers. A product that still is very much based on the foundation of what they initially started doing.
Cars would be something else entirely.
Great point. Apple has been able to get past some rather serious design problems. But imagine if these flaws resulted not in dropped calls but deaths. "You're driving it wrong"... no.
Car? It will be the thinnest car you've ever seen.
If you're going to offer turn-key support for advanced safety features, you need to be able to demonstrate they work. I wouldn't be surprised to find that they hired some key people from automotive industries such that it would allow them to build a set of prototypes to demonstrate their products, and later on provide direct support to manufacturers integrating Apple's new products into their designs.
The hiring patterns would look like they're preparing to build cars, but they're actually preparing to build the platforms. Additionally, hiring from high up in automotive industry R&D departments provides them a guaranteed "in" once they need to start selling what they've made.
I mean, it's speculation, but that's how I'd do it.
Whether Apple is working on a car or not; the "mysterious van" suggest a component, not an entire car.