Fiat Chrysler Open to Working With Apple as VW Seeks Other Partners

[MacRumors]

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is in the late stage of talks with Google parent company Alphabet Inc. about an industry partnership involving self-driving car technology, according to automotive blog Autoextremist and The Wall Street Journal.

Moreover, Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has reportedly indicated that he is open to working with a tech giant, including Alphabet or Apple, in order to build more scale and help offset automotive-related production and development costs.

On the contrary, Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller said that its ongoing discussions with potential partners to start new digital mobility businesses do not involve Apple or Alphabet, as reported by Reuters.

The negotiations follow multiple reports that claim Apple is actively researching and developing an electric vehicle that could enter mass production by 2019 at the earliest. The so-called "Apple Car" team, known as "Project Titan" internally, is believed to include hundreds of employees that previously worked at Ford, General Motors, Land Rover, Tesla Motors, Texas Instruments, and elsewhere.

Apple also reportedly failed to reach manufacturing partnerships with Daimler and BMW.

Article Link: Fiat Chrysler Open to Working With Apple as VW Seeks Other Partners

 

[k1121j]

WOW you think VW would be looking for friends these days

 

[TimUSCA]

Fine by me. It'll be less expensive by Fiat Chrysler instead of VW.

 

[Deasnutz]

WOW you think VW would be looking for friends these days

I don't think anyone wants to be their friend, right now.

 

[Adithya007]

It would be a better bet for Apple to seriously step up its iPhone game instead of working on something that they have had no experience at....

Seriously, They're trying to leave that which is in their hands to catch hold of something that which is flying high above their heads.

 

[JPLC]

That would be the same like Samsung assembling the iPhone for Apple. Not going to see this happen. Apple needs a Foxconn for cars and I guess it wil be Korean, Chinese or Japanese.

 

[rp2011]

I would imagine one of the reasons Apple was interested in BMW was to put some of it's offshore fortune to good use. It's going to cost a good chunk of Apple's fortune, and I'm sure it wants to use some of that money. Having all that money out there, like all drug dealers and embezzlers know, get's you a little antsy about it's welfare and using it to pay bills back home.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Didn't Apple learn their lesson about partnering with another company to have them make hardware when they partnered with Motorola on the ROKR? (Failed phone from 2005, for those not familiar with it. Only phone other than the iPhone that Apple blessed with compatibility in iTunes.)

 

[dlewis23]

Fine by me. It'll be less expensive by Fiat Chrysler instead of VW.

And it won't work. FCA is building the most unreliable cars right now.

The car will need a genius to follow you around.

 

[rp2011]

Well, Tesla is said to be manufacturing its Model 3 in China.
I would imagine an Apple car would be built there too.

Tech companies created a tech center in China, and soon a modern car manufacturing infrastructure too. Making it a certainty that in the near future for China to be self-reliant and self-sustaining and not needing to import any foreign products.

A beautiful trade imbalance that will be the envy of the world.

 

[mr.steevo]

Aren't Chrysler/Fiat vehicles ranked low for reliability?

 

[bollman]

Besides Tesla, which is gaining traction in Europe due to unfair tax laws, the other companies are on the bottom of the list of good manufacturers.
Chrysler: the company that dragged Mercedes in the dirt.
Fiat: famous for low cost, low quality cars (I dare you to find a 20 year old Fiat on the roads of northern Europe. They're all gone, rusted away years ago like the brands reputation). Ferrari might be a super car, but their quality is by no means "super".
General Motors... The masters of "Badge Engineering". If Apple partner with them, our MacBooks will be branded "Daewoo" within a decade and be made out of recycled beer cans.
Land Rover. Well, British cars have a great reputation. If you like electrical malfunction and extra ventilation through the body (although older Land Rovers had bodywork out of aluminium, the frame rusted away at frightening speed). Now owned by Tata from India. A country NOT famous for their great cars.

I think it's very interesting that the companies that actually stands for quality, brand loyalty, excellent engineering, innovation, the Germans, are all off the list. I wonder if that is because Apple don't want to work with them or the other way around... My guess is that the Germans are not interested in partnering with an obnoxious Yank with no experience in the car industry.
Apple might brag about being the inventor of the modern smartphone, but Mercedes invented the car.

 

[CFreymarc]

WOW you think VW would be looking for friends these days

Unlike the American mindset of "no shame from a mistake", in Germany and most of Europe, it is common to see people and groups retreat from public interaction when a mistake or other folly occurs. Another reason why I never took a job on the other side of the pond.
[doublepost=1461868804][/doublepost]

General Motors... The masters of "Badge Engineering". If Apple partner with them, our MacBooks will be branded "Daewoo" within a decade and be made out of recycled beer cans.

GM has been run by accountants for the past 40-years. Killing the Saturn, Oldsmobile and Pontiac divisions were some the biggest mistakes they made recently. This is why John DeLorean and other very creative forces left GM in the late 70's.

 

[bpeeps]

It would be a better bet for Apple to seriously step up its iPhone game instead of working on something that they have had no experience at....

Seriously, They're trying to leave that which is in their hands to catch hold of something that which is flying high above their heads.

Do MR members work for companies where one person is the HR manager, janitor, boss, IT specialist, programmer, and the intern or what?

 

[akatsuki]

Besides Tesla, which is gaining traction in Europe due to unfair tax laws, the other companies are on the bottom of the list of good manufacturers.
Chrysler: the company that dragged Mercedes in the dirt.
Fiat: famous for low cost, low quality cars (I dare you to find a 20 year old Fiat on the roads of northern Europe. They're all gone, rusted away years ago like the brands reputation). Ferrari might be a super car, but their quality is by no means "super".
General Motors... The masters of "Badge Engineering". If Apple partner with them, our MacBooks will be branded "Daewoo" within a decade and be made out of recycled beer cans.
Land Rover. Well, British cars have a great reputation. If you like electrical malfunction and extra ventilation through the body (although older Land Rovers had bodywork out of aluminium, the frame rusted away at frightening speed). Now owned by Tata from India. A country NOT famous for their great cars.

I think it's very interesting that the companies that actually stands for quality, brand loyalty, excellent engineering, innovation, the Germans, are all off the list. I wonder if that is because Apple don't want to work with them or the other way around... My guess is that the Germans are not interested in partnering with an obnoxious Yank with no experience in the car industry.
Apple might brag about being the inventor of the modern smartphone, but Mercedes invented the car.

Japanese quality is far, far better than lease-special Germans. Europeans are just very biased to their home brands. But all automakers have super-insulated cultures, so doubt they will want to work with an Silicon Valley company.

 

[jontech]

Hard to cheat when Apple won't decrypt....

 

[rp2011]

I think Ford today has been a class act all around. I've owned other vehicles and Fords, and the difference in quality is easy to see. Ford learned their lesson and I have nothing but respect for them. Their vehicles are an order of magnitude better built that the two other American cars.

 

[PBRsg]

Why is Apple trying to build an actual car, when it can build a car self-driving/car management/entertainment/iPhone compatible module that it simply can licence to anyone that wants it?

 

[bpeeps]

Why is Apple trying to build an actual car, when it can build a car self-driving/car management/entertainment/iPhone compatible module that it simply can licence to anyone that wants it?

Apple licenses software, never hardware which is what most of what you've written would entail. Carplay already exists for the software side.

 

[Gawjuz]

It's like group work at university. The geeky guy that would help you get good grades has fallen out with you so you're stuck with the class dumbass.

 

[CFreymarc]

My guess is that the Germans are not interested in partnering with an obnoxious Yank with no experience in the car industry.
Apple might brag about being the inventor of the modern smartphone, but Mercedes invented the car.

Dalmer and the innovative entrepreneurial mindset that was the Germain Industrial Revolution was killed off by excessive order and efficiency by the Kaiser and those following his mindset a century to seventy years ago.

The best export out of Silicon Valley is economic disruption and growth that compromises vested interest that cannot compete with upstarts.

While it started with electronics and computers, the disruption is moving into other industries that have remained stagnant for decades. Medical services and medical devices has seen this for a generation. Not automotive and aerospace is getting the kick in the teeth that's been coming to them for a long time.

The establishment either fights back and looses by attrition or revises itself with the upstarts knighted and married into the court.

 

[Noctilux.95]

Fix It Again Tim

 

[Bubba Satori]

Dalmer and the innovative entrepreneurial mindset that was the Germain Industrial Revolution was killed off by excessive order and efficiency by the Kaiser and those following his mindset a century to seventy years ago.

The best export out of Silicon Valley is economic disruption and growth that compromises vested interest that cannot compete with upstarts.

While it started with electronics and computers, the disruption is moving into other industries that have remained stagnant for decades. Medical services and medical devices has seen this for a generation. Not automotive and aerospace is getting the kick in the teeth that's been coming to them for a long time.

The establishment either fights back and looses by attrition or revises itself with the upstarts knighted and married into the court.

I saluted and clicked my heels after reading this.

 

[emm386]

only Fiat/Chrysler are left? This is... not... good... from a health-conscious, luxury goods consuming, "stereotypical" Apple customers (the guys and gals in Apple commercials) standpoint, at least...

But beggars can't be choosers, they say.

 

[WWPD]

Japanese quality is far, far better than lease-special Germans. Europeans are just very biased to their home brands. But all automakers have super-insulated cultures, so doubt they will want to work with an Silicon Valley company.

I'll take a German auto over a Japanese auto any day.