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Kuo: Development of Apple Car Has 'Lost All Visibility'

mecloud said:
I’ve never understood the notion of an ”Apple Car”. It’s so removed from their general business that it just doesn’t make any sense to me. Much the same as the idea of Porsche coming out with their own phone or computer.
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I agree and disagree. Apple, at its heart, is a software company. The hardware is there to accomplish its software goals. I think GM is starting to understand that cars, at some point down the road, will be just the hardware that software runs on. GM, and other car MFG's, if they don't adapt, will be relegated to just making the equipment that other people's software runs on. Apple like to control the user experience....like they REALLY care about this. Does Apple need to make their own displays to control the iPhone experience? No, but for the first few iPhones they were basically the design shop for an outsourced screen MFG. Apple also finally just started making their own chips instead of partnering with chip MFG's because of the level of control they wanted. Granted all of these things are related to "computing" but the hardware of a car will become less important as the software of the car becomes more advanced.

This could be correlated to Apple partnering with an existing automotive MFG to make a distinctly unique vehicle. However, I could also see Apple just continuing down the path of CarPlay and leaving the hardware to others. I think either path forward would not be surprising. The reason why your example doesn't work is because Apple cares about the vehicle because it is a mechanism by which their audience would interact with their product, the software. Porsche has no audience in a computer or a phone so there is no correlation.
 
ps3zocker said:
I don't understand the goal of a supposed Apple Car anyway. Wouldn't they basically do what Tesla already does?
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Many Apple products started out as something others already did, just trying to improve on it in terms of specs and/or convenience. From the iPod to the Vision Pro.
 
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mthomas184 said:
Probably because IT WAS NEVER HAPPENING IN THE FIRST PLACE
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Bingo. I think they just put together something to test and build out the next verzion of carplay, that was demo'ed at WWDC, that's all it was. Apple isn't making cars, just like they weren't making TV's. They built something to test and build their software on.
 
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a nice electric mercedes would make a great apple car with minor changes. I'd definitely get one.
 
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Arsenikdote said:
I agree and disagree. Apple, at its heart, is a software company. The hardware is there to accomplish its software goals. I think GM is starting to understand that cars, at some point down the road, will be just the hardware that software runs on. GM, and other car MFG's, if they don't adapt, will be relegated to just making the equipment that other people's software runs on. Apple like to control the user experience....like they REALLY care about this. Does Apple need to make their own displays to control the iPhone experience? No, but for the first few iPhones they were basically the design shop for an outsourced screen MFG. Apple also finally just started making their own chips instead of partnering with chip MFG's because of the level of control they wanted. Granted all of these things are related to "computing" but the hardware of a car will become less important as the software of the car becomes more advanced.

This could be correlated to Apple partnering with an existing automotive MFG to make a distinctly unique vehicle. However, I could also see Apple just continuing down the path of CarPlay and leaving the hardware to others. I think either path forward would not be surprising. The reason why your example doesn't work is because Apple cares about the vehicle because it is a mechanism by which their audience would interact with their product, the software. Porsche has no audience in a computer or a phone so there is no correlation.
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Apple at its heart is really a hardware company.
Remember the fact that Apple had to work with Microsoft to develop the Basic Interpreter.
Steve Jobs himself said Bill Gates made software a legitimate business, while he compared Apple products in the mid 80s as high department appliances like microwaves.

So, I would say, software was secondary to the hardware but not by much, since the GUI was key to selling the user experience.
 
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wankey said:
You can tell who's a fool by seeing if they thought Apple was going to make a car.

Apple was never going to make a car. Apple is a high profit, low risk company. Cars are inherently massive risk, no profit.

They will wait until cars become software, then they will move hard into it.

But think about it - 5000 iphones is about the same amount of metal to make a car. 1 plane can move around 5,000 iphones or 10,000 watches especially with their smaller and smaller packges (now without charger).

That's literally bricks of money being moved at a plane load at a time.

Now think cars, they need massive investment in the $10B range, they need to move these cars via boat ONLY and they need to store these cars at storage facilities.

On top of that they only make $5000-8000 per car, and then have to maintain their fleet.

There's no benefit.
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Not to mention the inevitable fatal collisions and lawsuits. It would be absolutely insane for Apple to enter a market that is guaranteed to cast a negative shadow on every other product they make.
 
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coasterider said:
Manufacturing an entire car, any car, goes against every Climate Goal the company has. A single occupancy Apple vehicle is never going to happen.
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The whole project was to develop sensors, software, dashboard and apps for OTHER car manufacturers. CarPlay is one of the results.

Stop listening to people like Kuo. Saves us a lot of time and energy.
 
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flashflood said:
Not to mention the inevitable fatal collisions and lawsuits. It would be absolutely insane for Apple to enter a market that is guaranteed to cast a negative shadow on every other product they make.
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True.

There were Samsung cars for a while, but Samsung isn't one company. It's conglomerate that lends its name to many companies. There was even Samsung clothing line.

For Apple to develop their own automobile, they would have to spin off a new company. License the Apple brand to that company. It would have its own CEO. It wouldn't be under the same company. Too much mess. Too much internal conflict.
 
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They should buy out Lucid. They are going bankrupt very soon so they will be very happy to sell
 
mecloud said:
I’ve never understood the notion of an ”Apple Car”. It’s so removed from their general business that it just doesn’t make any sense to me. Much the same as the idea of Porsche coming out with their own phone or computer.
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You mean like the Porsche Design Sagem, P'9983, or Mate 40 RS to name a few phones? Or the Acer Book RS? Sure, they don't manufacture them, rather by Blackberry, HUAWEI, etc, but the Porsche name has been on devices for many, many years.

I've always wondered if an Apple Car would be an Apple design and spec, but manufactured by another company. This is the greater of any likelihood, outside of it being vaporware or simply a fully integrated software suite to be licensed.
 
They have time. Until the American civil infrastructure can accommodate EVs, they will fail to gain wide traction. We have a massive deficit of charging stations.
 
Apple should not build cars. They will need to spend too much money and return will be too little.
All traditional car manufacturers try to convert EVs but individual company does not have capabilities to make good softwares except tesla. Also they will not have enough money to develop good softwares so it’s better to buy from Apple if Apple develops good softwares for cars and possibly Apple chips for car computers then if 3-4 of auto companies joins this movement from BMW, Mercedes, Kia/Hyundai, VW, ford, GM, Honda, and Toyota, it will be great opportunity for Apple.
EV infotainment systems are better nowadays but still people prefer to use Apple CarPlay or android auto.
Apple should develop software, sensors, chips/computer for EV.
Especially special sensors and computer can communicate other cars then cars can automatically braking and positioning each other. It will be safer.
 
e-coli said:
They have time. Until the American civil infrastructure can accommodate EVs, they will fail to gain wide traction. We have a massive deficit of charging stations.
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They’re gaining traction rapidly…
 
A 100% designed Apple car is not gonna happen. This company doesn't have the expertise.

Unless they acquire Rivian or Lucid or some new EV company that's allready producing cars, this will never happen.

What I've said before they should do, is partner with a luxury brand to offer an "Apple Edition" trim level, which will have Apple styling cues on the outside and inside, as well as the infotainment.
 
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