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Apple Watch Chief Kevin Lynch Now Leading Apple Car Efforts

MadeTheSwitch said:
Shouldn’t the leader of a first time car project be...oh I don’t know...experienced in the car industry???
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That’s what people said about the watch. Heck even the phone. Many of the startup electric vehicles developments step out of normal hiring circles. Most of the major car companies failed to build a proper electric car after 30 years of trying. Then Tesla nailed it from the outside but was told they would fail.
 
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Can't wait for the charging system to be revealed.
 
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Abazigal said:
Design and a business model that doesn't rely on actually selling cars.

I have this gut feeling that owning an electric car will end up being the "blackberry" moment for the auto-industry - a near-term phenomenon that turns out to not be representative of the future. I still am of the opinion that the future of cars is autonomous ride-sharing. People won't own cars; they will share them and Apple would certainly have size necessary to form that critical mass of users needed for a ride-sharing car network.

The more I think about it, the more the economics of owning a car becomes less appealing over time, much less everyone owning their own self-driving car. It's parked in a carpark 90% of the time, and the fewer cars on the road, the less congestion, the less space need to be used for carparks and supporting infrastructure, and more space for everything else.

For all the technological improvements that cars have had over the year, the primary design hasn't really changed. I think there is potential for a company like Apple to rethink the entire car experience using their expertise in software and manufacturing, not unlike what the iPhone did for the smartphone industry.

For instance, a car could be reimagined as a room on wheels, which can be customised to whatever layout you want, since you no longer need a driver in front. Apple also has the necessary ecosystem and infrastructure in place, from Apple Pay, to maps, to Siri, to communications to even their own entertainment bundle.

It's all about skating to where the puck will be, and I don't think the future is simply everyone owning an electric car.
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In other words the apple car will be so expensive, people will have to share.
 
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themacobserver said:
Full integration into the Apple ecosystem. After all, that's the only thing that matters to Apple.
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True that.
Apple is "selling more services", but these services are only really useful if you use Apple devices.
Obviously, best thing for Apple is to have you use paid services like iCloud, Music, TV, fitness, etc. so that you'll keep buying devices to make good use of them.

Apple Car... hmm... how could you tie that into the eco-system:
• Unlock and start Car with iPhone
• Navigational extra's using Apple maps
• Apple Music, Podcasts, TV for kids in the back
• Built-in AirTags > Find my Car
• "Hey Siri, drive me to"...
• ... etc.
 
SFjohn said:
If actually Apple sells them, rather than deploying them in cities as a ride sharing service.
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I was just making a joke, a pun on watches (second hand) and the guy taking over car development. But you make a good point, it remains to be seen if Apple will make cars for individual consumers or simply mass transit. It will be interesting to see what they eventually do, if anything.
 
triton100 said:
What I don’t get is that car theft is huge in the U.K. as is iPhone theft. There’s a huge crime surge with people having their iPhones stolen directly out of their hands on the streets. Those that go around driving an apple car which will no doubt be an amazing vehicle will literally have their homes targeted by thieves to steal an apple car. It’s going to be like a giant iPhone times hundred. The insurance is going to be insane on an apple car as they will be stolen left, right and centre.
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I’m sorry the situation in the UK sounds rather dire. But from the situation you’re describing, how is it possible for people to own anything? I hope you can petition your lawmakers for some form of change that allows citizens a greater range of options for self defense and securing of property.

I may be wrong, but based on some conversations I’ve had, I’ve gotten the impression that violent criminals can somehow potentially face lesser penalties than a person employing weapons (of any kind even common household objects) to defend themselves. I’m not really sure how that works, or if that is actually the case, but apparently the system must be somehow unbalanced in favor of criminals for this to be the epidemic you describe.

It’s up to citizens to petition their lawmakers to change the laws to restore the equilibrium. I know that’s often easier said than done. I hope it can be done, because it’s untenable that criminals basically dictate what you can and can’t own with your hard earned money.

In the US many homes have garages. Many homes have alarm systems and means of defending property and laws that allow for that. So there could be a robust market here and Apple could potentially be quite busy filling orders in the US for quite some time before they even think of expanding to the UK. I don’t know that they will be able to have massive supply for a couple of years. Meanwhile, things could very well turn around in the UK. I’d imagine even now there are many parts of the UK where people are safe and secure. If not, then the UK has more important concerns than whether or not Apple sells cars.

FWIW I have friends here on the forum who live in the UK and they happily own iPhones and expensive Android phones and haven’t expressed any concerns that crime rates would prevent them from continuing to enjoy such products.
 
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OT:
I think they got their car logo wrong. It's supposed to be a steering wheel but looks like a "sad" mouth. Turning the sides around and upwards would make it look like a "smile". This would be the way to go.
 
LOL funny.
The Watch Chief now in charge of building an APPLE CAR.
This gets more and more wild as we go along.
 
My bet is it’s not a fully designed Apple car… It’s Apple CarControl.. a fully integrated AppleCar computer system with something iPad like onto existing car models.. Toyota’s car to start. Think of it as Toyota offering the Apple CarControl upgrade on the RAV4. This makes more sense than Apple selling its own vehicles. Apple will want Apple CarControl sold in other brand cars as well. Will be much better than Tesla’s touch screen control. Will also come with Apples Car Navigation. No more laggy CarPlay infotainment systems. A full Apple CarOS computer console for your known car models. A Subaru with Starlink removed and Apple CarControl installed
 
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Realityck said:
Is he really in charge of the Apple Car or is he in charge of Apple automotive car sensor technology being marketed to automobile vendors?
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He’s an OS guy.. he did the low power WatchOS. He’s probably doing the CarOS that runs on 12v center console power in most cars… My bet is Apple Car is not Apple designed cars, but Apple fully integrating with existing car models with a computer, navigation and some iPad like display. They will also kick out android auto in these upgraded RAV4s with Apple Car
 
So the leader of the Apple car project has absolutly no car manufacturing or car production experience what so ever.I can see that this project is going to go very well hahaha.
 
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