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Apple Working On Project That Will 'Give Tesla a Run for its Money' Says Employee

69Mustang said:
I know you were making a funny but try 1998. Samsung has been selling cars for 17 years through a partnership with Renault. They sell a small, mid-size, and large sedan along with a small and mid-size crossover.
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The Renault-Samsung motors is Samsung in its name and a minority stake only. All the cars it sells are slightly modified versions of Renault/Nissan and Samsung doesn't do much other than lending its name to Renault and getting a cut of the profit.

One interesting note. Technically the minority share of the car company is held by Samsung Card, which a Samsung company that issues various credit cards. Thus you could say Samsung did Apple Pay before Apple to. Samsung and other Korean conglomerates have been doing pretty much every business under the sun.

If I were to bet on something though. I would predict that if Apple is successful with their motor initative, samsung will magically make something similar. Then at Macrumors someone will use Renault-Samsung as the proof why Samsung didn't copy Apple.
 
69Mustang said:
Top 3 - China, 4 thru 8 - US, 9 & 10 - China. Apple comes in at 15 on this list.
http://www.forbes.com/global2000/list/

This is their 2014 list. They include addd link for their methodology.
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The main reason its not number one is basically assets. All but two (toyota 12 and GE at 7) companies above apple are Oil and financial companies. Those companies are worth something even if they produce absolutely nothing at all. They have a very high liquidation value.

There are only 40 of the top 100 that are not Financial or energy related.
Here is for your enjoyment. All the usual suspects that are part of our lives are there :).

** Cars
12) Toyota, 19) Volkswagen, 31 Daimler, 47 Ford, 48 BMW, 67 GM, 70 Honda, 87 Hyundai

** Consumer Technology
15) Apple, 22) Samsung 32) Microsoft, 52) Google, 80) HP

** Industrial Technology
7) GE, 53) Siemens, 72) BASF, 84) Boeing, 99) Saudi Basic Industries

** Business Technology
35) IBM, 78) INTEL, 82) CISCO, 95) Oracle

** Consumer Goods
36) Nestle, 40) P&G, 41) Johnson & Johnson, 64) InBev (Bush), 81) Coca-Cola, 93) PepsiCo

** Retailer
20) WalMart, 96) CVS

** Telecom
23) AT&T, 26 Verizon, 38) Vodaphone, 57) Comcast, 61) NTT, 68) Telefonica

** Pharmaceutical / cosmetics
45) Pfizer, 54) Novartis, 87) Sanofi, 99) Merck, 90 Roche

** Entertainment
100 Disney
 
Unless Apple has been surreptitiously hiring former industry workers, it's highly unlikely that they're working on a complete car.

As Tesla discovered, that kind of expertise is mostly found outside Silicon Valley, and without it, they would never have been able to design and produce their own car.

Musk made a lot of noise early on about doing it their own way, with geeks building cars. But going from buying rolling chassis from Lotus and installing motors and battery packs is a good deal more simple than engineering a complete vehicle, and establishing a production line.

The people who made that happen came from the dinosaur industry Musk once mocked.

But, credit where credit is due, they've done a good job with the Model S.
 
I'm thinking it will come with 1 seat (driver). To get a 2 or 5 seater, you would have to upgrade.

it will also not come with a trunk (apple says trunks should be phased out) to make the car smaller and thinner.

oh and gen 1 will probably overheat
 
Keirasplace said:
The main reason its not number one is basically assets. All but two (toyota 12 and GE at 7) companies above apple are Oil and financial companies. Those companies are worth something even if they produce absolutely nothing at all. They have a very high liquidation value...
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Yeah, I saw all of that in the link I included so Rogifan could see Apple wasn't in the Top 5 as he assumed. We weren't really looking for reasons behind the rankings.

Financial services in China... sort of highlights the monstrous gap between the haves and the have nots.
 
fertilized-egg said:
The Renault-Samsung motors is Samsung in its name and a minority stake only. All the cars it sells are slightly modified versions of Renault/Nissan and Samsung doesn't do much other than lending its name to Renault and getting a cut of the profit...
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Car companies around the world operate like that all the time. Nothing new. Shared platforms, tech, and yes, vehicles too. Classic example was the Aston Martin Cygnet. Nothing more than a rebadged Toyota iQ to boost Aston's brand average mpg.

Regardless, the only people worrying about who copied whom really need to get a hobby.:D
 
Crosscreek said:
As an engineer I can say I would rather work for a visionary like Musk than a beancounter like Cook.
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As an engineer I find your statement too shortsighted. No matter which company you work for, the decision will be made by a group of people, not Tim or Musk alone. Tim seems to be open to idea and listen to people, which make it easier to work with/for. Musk might be the same. The most important thing is the actual teammate that you'll work with everyday. Not the big boss whom you rarely see or talk too.
 
TheIntruder said:
Unless Apple has been surreptitiously hiring former industry workers, it's highly unlikely that they're working on a complete car.

As Tesla discovered, that kind of expertise is mostly found outside Silicon Valley, and without it, they would never have been able to design and produce their own car.

Musk made a lot of noise early on about doing it their own way, with geeks building cars. But going from buying rolling chassis from Lotus and installing motors and battery packs is a good deal more simple than engineering a complete vehicle, and establishing a production line.

The people who made that happen came from the dinosaur industry Musk once mocked.

But, credit where credit is due, they've done a good job with the Model S.
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+1 Very well said. I also agree that the Model S is a job well done. Especially the P85D in the very aptly named Insane Mode. Torque Monster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQHvMU6a0uA
 
MacRumors said:
Following last week's news of a mysterious Apple-leased vehicle roaming the streets of Northern California, an Apple employee has given some details to Business Insider, suggesting Apple is working on a project that will "give Tesla a run for its money."According to the site's source, who was verified to be an Apple employee, employees are "jumping ship" and choosing to work at Apple because of this unidentified project.
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cmChimera said:
The only projects that could justify that comment are a car or a spaceship.
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But Tesla doesn't make spaceships

usersince86 said:
Tesla doesn't, but SpaceX does
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But Tesla doesn't make spaceships
 
mozumder said:
An Apple car's sound system would be incredible.
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The more I think about it, more I agree. I think its a car audio system.
CarPlay is a software layer; nothing precludes Apple from making its own 2 DIN touch display car music center with built in Beats streaming, support for Siri and etc. Remember they always go where hardware and software can be merged, like iPads, iPods, Macs. While CarPlay is a software layers, the money can be made on Apple made headunit, which can be OEM manufactured, say by Pioneer or Alpine. In the same way, Beats car speakers would be awesome. I like good music so I installed Apline speakers but will be tempted by Apple offering.
 
Crosscreek said:
As an engineer I can say I would rather work for a visionary like Musk than a beancounter like Cook.
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Yes I'm sure the engineers regular work directly under the CEO and that there are no other visionaries at either company.
 
DTphonehome said:
I would have thought it would have made sense for Apple to purchase Tesla back when they were a $20 billion company. After all, to many people a car is simply their biggest and most expensive gadget. But there is no way that Apple is developing their own car. A self driving system, perhaps, but Google has been working on that for years and they are nowhere near ready for prime time.

It's hard to imagine what "giving Tesla a run for their money" means, but short of a car or self driving system, I can't imagine what would deserve that kind of hyperbole.
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A car with 1 year warranty, 90 day phone support? AppleCare for 3 years? And lack of updates after 4 years? I'll pass...

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StoneJack said:
The more I think about it, more I agree. I think its a car audio system.
CarPlay is a software layer; nothing precludes Apple from making its own 2 DIN touch display car music center with built in Beats streaming, support for Siri and etc. Remember they always go where hardware and software can be merged, like iPads, iPods, Macs. While CarPlay is a software layers, the money can be made on Apple made headunit, which can be OEM manufactured, say by Pioneer or Alpine. In the same way, Beats car speakers would be awesome. I like good music so I installed Apline speakers but will be tempted by Apple offering.
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All new Honda Civic with Beats by Dre.
 
Tech companies to the rescue

A few months ago I argued somewhere that tech companies are the ones that will start to revolutionize cars from gas to electric. Generally people can't see this coming because it is hard to imagine our world without the vehicle brand names we were born with. But here are the arguments:

Car companies are addicted to gas. They are all stressed and don't have the room or motivation to move away from gas. They are a part of a massive global consumer system.

Tech companies like Apple and Google have the money, and need to constantly innovate into ever larger markets or create new ones. Phones used to be separate from tech. Now we think of phones as computers. We are at the dawn of watch and wearables revolution where companies like Swatch are already feeling obsolete and panicking. In 10 years watches will be computers and people with regular watches will be getting the "which century are you from" looks like people with regular cellphones are getting now.

We are probably on the verge of TV revolution where TV's will become much more than TV's, they too will be computers.

Books and newspapers are also almost completely absorbed into the tech industry umbrella.

So why not cars? Companies like Apple know how to bring a new class of product to the market and make everyone want one. I totally expect that in additions to Fords, VWs, and Chevrolets we'll be seeing new brands coming from Apple, Google etc. We'll be seeing our traditional car brands first going through denial, then, panic and playing catch-up. Many will fall in the process.

So I take this rumor with a lot of interest. If Apple is working on a car - and we know Jobs was interested in this - we may see a revolution that will blow iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch out of water. :)
 
lincolntran said:
As an engineer I find your statement too shortsighted. No matter which company you work for, the decision will be made by a group of people, not Tim or Musk alone. Tim seems to be open to idea and listen to people, which make it easier to work with/for. Musk might be the same. The most important thing is the actual teammate that you'll work with everyday. Not the big boss whom you rarely see or talk too.
Click to expand...

Tim Cook seems entirely too willing to cut products or major features for a slightly increased ROI. Aperture. Final Cut Pro. iWork. Even transit and bike directions in Maps. That's not just a case of bad team members, those are strategic missteps at the boardroom level. At least Musk capitulates when he gets something wrong.
 
Seems ridiculous on the face of it. No way is Apple making an automobile, and Tesla is not exactly changing the world to begin with. No one competes in Teslas market, because it’s a small, niche market that they created for themselves. Their products don’t have the wide appeal that Apple’s do and likely never will.
 
Damn the Apple car... or whatever the hell is giving Tesla a run for his money... allegedly.

What I really want is a stable OSX operating system instead Yosemite, which is a fat whore sucking all the juice out of my Mac Pro, aka the trash can, that I blew 4K on.
 
Making a car that is 2-3 years behind the competition haha. I hope it's just a battery and not a car. For the love of god, apple please just stick to computers.
 
Crosscreek said:
As an engineer I can say I would rather work for a visionary like Musk than a beancounter like Cook.
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How much more visionary can you get than someone who, in 1998 left an executive position at Compaq, a very powerful company at the time and went to work for Apple, a company that was being written off by just about everyone?

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IJ Reilly said:
Somebody is using their noodle. This is the only place where the businesses of the two companies currently overlap, even a little.

It should also be said that a leaker within Apple is so rare as to be unheard of. Anyone who doesn't think the appearance of this leak is just a little suspect, go straight to the back of the class.
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Battery technology would be the one area that would get me excited. Fact is, the fact that battery technology is largely stuck in the 90s is what is holding back so many new possibilities. Think about the Apple Watch with a 7, or 14 or dare say it, even a 30 day battery life. Or an iPhone that lasts a week on a charge. Or a three day MacBook Air. Those things would be game changers.
 
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