Former GM CEO on Apple Car: 'They Have No Idea What They're Getting Into'

[LordVic]

The Car industry absolutely dwarfs Apple.

GM alone pulled in over 150 BILLION in revenues.
Toyota had 190 BILLION



The production chain in the automotive world is absolutely ginormous in comparison with the tech industry.

Listen, I think its possible Apple might use some of those wads of cash to put their logo on someone elses car. But I cannot even begin to fathom the sheer costs involved with starting a new automobile company from scratch.

The only reason Tesla has had any of their success was the Musk's direct involvement, keeping small scale, and having technology to lean on that nobody else in the entire world had yet.

its a huge uphill battle or Apple.

 

[Crosscreek]

If they are building a car I hope they don't follow there own maps or they will end up in the drink.

 

[dannyyankou]

He doesn't even know what Apple is getting into.

Prediction: They're just building a dashboard, not a full fledged car.

 

[AlecZ]

i guess that means apple can build and produce whatever it imagines sucessfully just as long as someone doubts them or is scared of them

Haha, exactly. It's like the "Well people said we couldn't break the sound barrier!" thing. Or flipping a quarter 5 times, getting 5 heads, then concluding that the probability of getting heads again is 90%.

 

[Icaras]

Palm said the same thing...

So did Steve Balmer on the iPhone, and Michael Dell on Apple Retail stores.

This guy will be the next addition to the hall of shame.

 

[MacDawg]

I find it interesting that he says, "They Have No Idea What They're Getting Into" when nobody, including him, knows for sure what Apple is even really doing.

People are giving advice and opinions on what Apple should or shouldn't do based on what they THINK Apple may be doing. Until we know definitively what Apple's car project is and isn't, what it does and doesn't do, then all these warnings and opinions are meaningless.

There, I've added MY just as useless opinion to the mix

 

[AppleScruff1]

Apple wouldn't have wanted to partner with GM - its vehicles are hardly innovative.

Esoecially the ZR1.

 

[AlecZ]

He doesn't even know what Apple is getting into.

Prediction: They're just building a dashboard, not a full fledged car.

Yeah, I seriously doubt the car rumors. An Apple dashboard would be sweet, though!

 

[subsonix]

Yeah, just like they didn't know how to build phones either.

The distinguishing feature that makes an iPhone a phone is the inclusion of a baseband chip.

 

[AppleScruff1]

So did Steve Balmer on the iPhone, and Michael Dell on Apple Retail stores.

This guy will be the next addition to the hall of shame.

Or maybe Cook will be.

 

[stars_fan]

A signal of anxiety.

And fear

 

[iSunrise]

So what makes the Ex-GM CEO think that Apple will sell the car with only <20% margins?

Seriously, how shortsighted is that guy?

Just because GM couldn't ask higher prices (because they don't know how to build good cars), why should or does Apple have to do the same?

This guy doesn't make any sense.

 

[Charliebird]

This whole thing is some kind of ruse put on by Apple to distract people from the missing watch features or the lack of a Retina MacBook Air. There is no Apple car coming!

 

[FrozenDarkness]

i completely agree. it's the apple television set all over again. apple should not get into traditional low margin businesses. it just doesn't make any sense. and there's really not much more innovation to go off of. the electric market is saturated with known players already. there's already a high end market as well. it just makes no sense.

self-driving technology that can be used across all cars, now that I can believe in.

 

[tmoney468]

Dont think Apple is working on a car, but his comments sure sound a lot like Ballmer's about the success of the iPhone.

 

[Icaras]

Or maybe Cook will be.

With stock price and market cap at an all time high? Nah. Timmy has already proven himself.

 

[AlecZ]

Apple wouldn't have wanted to partner with GM - its vehicles are hardly innovative.

Most vehicles are hardly innovative, but GM does make THE budget super car, the Corvette. I also heard the Volt is good... don't really care because it looks horribly ugly.

 

[foobarbaz]

Meanwhile, the Motorola CEO: Apple should really avoid the phone business with such low margins …

Guess what? Apple doesn't care that other companies have low margins. They only care which margins they can get.

 

[Ted13]

"We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in."

Palm CEO Ed Colligan, November 16 2006

Exactly. This guy is an even bigger moron than Ed Colligan -- and a lookalike of Steve Balmer.

 

[Bearxor]

Oh FFS, Apple isn't building a car.

Apple is building software and sensors to be implemented in to cars.

 

[Rogifan]

Can MWC start already so the media stops talking about an Apple car.

 

[mikecorp]

like Apple would go with steel.

Forget steel. We taking Aluminum, Carbon Fiber, Gorilla Glass or any other monkey related Glass. Apple will show you how to make cars. GM motors have no idea what will hit them.

 

[joenruschia]

They don't know what they're doing, we take steel and make a car... Well maybe they will take a different material. I mean, they did buy the rights to a liquid metal metal firm

https://www.macrumors.com/2010/08/0...quidmetal-technologies-advanced-metal-alloys/

 

[Asclepio]

a car watch

 

[LordVic]

Oh FFS, Apple isn't building a car.

Apple is building software and sensors to be implemented in to cars.

as mentioned in other threads and a curiosity if they are entering the automotive sector in the software side (more than carplay), is that Apple doesn't have a real time OS, something you require to be able to safely and accurately control modern vehicles.

that's going to be a tremendous barrier for Apple to overcome, it would mean completely writing a new OS from the ground up outside of OSx and iOS. not something I see them doing. Not when their rivals have already been in the market for a few years (QNX owned by Blackberry and Microsoft, including home brewed OS')