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Hyundai Executives Said to Be 'Divided' Over Prospect of Apple Car Partnership

cmaier said:
Yep. And he wasn’t the only one. But people said Apple would fail with ipod, iphone, ipad, and even apple watch. No reason to expect the car to turn out any differently.
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I would argue that an internet device is much closer to Apple‘s (then) core business than a car. Proof is in this very article: They didn’t need anybody to build the iPhone. But they won’t build a car on their own.
Edit: I should have said "design", I didn't mean the actual assembly.
 
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nikaru said:
It is not that easy building a huge manufacturing plant with significant output of cars. Ask Tesla. Finding the right workers is also not easy part in many states in the US and foreign countries (except China maybe).
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I'm willing to bet that once Apple gains enough know-how with Hyundai/Kia, they are going to transfer their knowledge back to their Chinese contract vehicle manufacturers, such as Foxconn-Geely.
 
Taipan said:
I would argue that an internet device is much closer to Apple‘s (then) core business than a car. Proof is in this very article: They didn’t need anybody to build the iPhone. But they won’t build a car on their own.
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Huh? they don't build the iPhone. They also don't build (most of) their computers. Exactly the same as the car.
 
cmaier said:
Huh? they don't build the iPhone. They also don't build (most of) their computers. Exactly the same as the car.
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You expect them to build a car to the same extent that they are building computers? I don't think so. iPhones may be assembled externally, but all the design and plans how to put together the components are from Apple. I don't think they will do that for a car.
 
Taipan said:
You expect them to build a car to the same extent that they are building computers? I don't think so. iPhones may be assembled externally, but all the design and plans how to put together the components are from Apple. I don't think they will do that for a car.
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Of course it will. The entire design will come from Apple. All the factory will do is put it together. Same as iPhone. I don’t even understand why you’d think otherwise? Apple has never been a company willing to let another company do its design and engineering work for it.
 
cmaier said:
Of course it will. The entire design will come from Apple. All the factory will do is put it together. Same as iPhone. I don’t even understand why you’d think otherwise? Apple has never been a company willing to let another company do its design and engineering work for it.
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OK, apparently I have different expectations than other people. The reason why I'd think that is what I said: The iPhone was largely still a computer. A car isn't. It's a completely different device with a completely different market that requires completely different skills and experience.
 
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Taipan said:
OK, apparently I have different expectations than other people. The reason why I'd think that is what I said: The iPhone was largely still a computer. A car isn't. It's a completely different device with a completely different market that requires completely different skills and experience.
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Apple has hired a ton of automotive engineers. It’s not like their job is to sit in meetings and say “let’s hire Hyundai to do the engineering.” And it’s not like the folks designing the iphone are going to be designing the drive train of the car.

A car is just a computer on wheels. Especially electric cars are very simple - almost no moving parts. It’s not rocket science.
 
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Taipan said:
OK, apparently I have different expectations than other people. The reason why I'd think that is what I said: The iPhone was largely still a computer. A car isn't. It's a completely different device with a completely different market that requires completely different skills and experience.
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cars today are very much computers just with a CO2 generator attached.

the most expensive and complicated parts of a car, the IC engines and transmissions, will soon do without them as they are replaced by motors, batteries, more sensors and software.

the most expensive and complicated parts of a car, the IC engines and transmissions, will soon do without them as they are replaced by motors, batteries, more sensors and software.

Cars of tomorrow will be even much more like an iPhone albeit with seats.

One can see how fast Tesla got it together, and realize that Apple with an essentially unlimited budget will be able to do it that much faster.

Any OEM who becomes Apple’s contract manufacturer only needs to do a couple of things, don’t let Apple siphon resources from your day job (have a virtual wall between your operation for Apple and yours) and if you can make a bit of money doing it, why not, because you’re not going to be able to stop their entry into the market.
 
It doesn't really make sense for Apple to build a car in the same way it doesn't make sense for them to sell a television. With the iPhone, iPad, Mac there is a whole ecosystem, the walled garden. That doesn't really exist for cars. I am personally much more excited about their AR glasses.
 
I for one look forward to the rise of the OCMs, Original Car Manufacturers, just like how the entire lagdroid side of the cell phone market is made up of ODMs (This includes all Chinese brands which simply market and brand ODM devices, even Samsung does this at times i.e. they don't make the phone themselves)

But it begs the question, is this really new or unusual? The car industry has been decades ahead of the electronics industry with badge engineering, shared production, joint ventures, etc.
 
Having almost the same cars made by two brands never made any sense to me. I’d rather that Kia survived and Hyundai went away as a car brand, keeping Genesis as the premium brand made by Hyundai. But apparently Hyundai leadership believe they have a valuable car brand in Hyundai, so the only way to accommodate Apple is kill the Kia brand and make Kia a contract manufacturer for Apple.

Or Apple should consider buying Kia. They have a great design studio with amazing designers and gorgeous vehicles. They have a plant in the US and a plant in Korea, which is perfect. No connection to China. No issues with the trade war between the US and China. Let Apple buy Kia and get down to business of making KiApple cars already.
 
Taipan said:
OK, apparently I have different expectations than other people. The reason why I'd think that is what I said: The iPhone was largely still a computer. A car isn't. It's a completely different device with a completely different market that requires completely different skills and experience.
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Has been mentioned before, but current cars (future ones even more so) are pretty much computers wheels attached.
The general concept of a car hasn't changed much over the last decades. Frame & bodywork only improves in the materials used (crash optimization, lightweight but still strong) and aerodynamics (where improvement is quite limited as long as you expect the car to look familiar to what people are used to). Chassis/suspension won't see any major breakthrough on the mechanical side either. That's as good as it gets. It's just tuning to the desired characteristics. Drivetrain in EVs is no rocket science either. Future innovation is in battery technology and software. And that's "not too far away" from what Apple's core business is.
 
I'm genuinely more interested in why Hyundai, of all brands. I have nothing against Hyundai, but they are neither known for being a premium brand, nor are they known for being extremely reliable vehicles. Just curious what Apple sees/saw here to attempt the pursuit of a relationship in getting a vehicle to market together.
 
Apple is a tech company. Microchips, hardware, software. An apple car could be its very death. Imagine, people might die on a apple car!? The worst that can possibly happen now is someone get a swollen battery on an Apple Watch and have the screen detached from the body.

Please Apple, make tech great again! Jump on the open source projects so that the M1 GPU is widely supported. Make apple the state of art of VR. Kill Windows!!! Make MacOS enterprise capable so we don’t need to rely on third parties like JAMF/Intunes! Don’t lose yourself where you do not belong!
 
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cmaier said:
Apple has hired a ton of automotive engineers. It’s not like their job is to sit in meetings and say “let’s hire Hyundai to do the engineering.” And it’s not like the folks designing the iphone are going to be designing the drive train of the car.

A car is just a computer on wheels. Especially electric cars are very simple - almost no moving parts. It’s not rocket science.
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I still argue that in the US franchise dealership laws will create headaches Apple may not be used to.
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You can see a polestar 2 in two states (CA and NY), no one has talked about how they get serviced if you live in say TX. Maybe in ten years the laws will be different, I guess we will see who goes first.
 
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dyvog said:
honestly if Apple wanted to court Subaru or even Toyota instead I would be very very into that.
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Why would it make any difference to you? Whether it's Hyundai, Subaru, or Toyota, it's just a contract manufacturing job to assemble components that Apple sources. It's not a brand partnership to build a car together. What you're saying is akin to saying "I want my phone assembled by Wistron instead of Foxconn." It makes no difference, and it wouldn't for the car either.
 
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