Report: Apple Chose to Develop Apple Car Alone to Avoid Further Delays, Currently Selecting Suppliers

[darcyf]

Building cars is hard. They have to be reliable and safe. Selling them with US states prohibiting company owned dealerships creates difficulties. I am surprised Apple is trying to get into this business as it is far removed from their core computing/UI focus. I hope they have figured it out as I would be interested.

EVs have many fewer moving parts compared to an ICE vehicle but the mechanical and electrical engineering still required in an EV is massive.

Virtually everything you’ve said could have been applied to the phone market before iPhone. Hard, need to be reliable and safe, require partnerships with telecoms to sell or they’re just a fancy brick, it’s a phone, not a computer, so apple should stick to what they know.

Tesla considers their cars to be robots. I think people need to stop thinking of cars like the crude vehicles we’ve known for the past century to understand what apple is doing. Phones dramatically changed because of apple. Cars will, too.

 

[apparatchik]

Apple would be making a huge mistake getting into the automobile industry.

I agree, I hope they focus on their core businesses, not thrilled about this either, it can dig a hole in their finances and threaten other areas of the operation imho.

 

[HiVolt]

I just wish they'd go back to making Airports and Time Capsules...

Nah, they'd rather you buy iCloud storage for your backups...

 

[swingerofbirch]

Tesla's been at this a while and still has manufacturing issues.

Companies like Hyundai and Kia they wanted to work with, which are now reliable, took a long time to get there.

I had a friend around the year 2000 who had a Kia, and I said how impressive it was they had a 10 year warranty. Her response was: You'll need it every day for those 10 years.

But their reputation now is really good.

I don't think Apple can go from 0 to 100 on this. And they're going to want to charge a premium.

I'm not sure how safe I would feel in an Apple car built in house when I think of quality control problems they have with much simpler to assemble tech.

They should have bought Tesla if they really wanted to go down this car path. Why they would want to go down this car path and what they think they could add is beyond me.

 

[CordovaLark]

If this is still in "Currently" status, that means this it will not see the day until 2025 at earliest

Even that estimate is insane, they'd have to design, build, develop the software and so forth. Then they have to test the car, for some time. Then even getting it on the road would take several years as well.

 

[mattopotamus]

Is there a price rumor? It's going to be over six figures I assume?

 

[SD449]

It makes zero sense for them to develop software only to sell it to others.

Apple's software exists so that they can develop the hardware around it and optimize both parts. No way they would sell the OS. That's like them allowing other manufacturers to use iOS or macOS.

If anything and this car project fails, they'd rather cancel the whole thing, than releasing the software for others.

I was thinking about CarPlay the other day and wondered if this is the only OS that Apple has ever licensed to 3rd parties.

Or is it more of like a screen mirroring?

 

[ForkHandles]

I'd love to see an Apple Car. Two things I would expect, One, it'd be bloody expensive and two, it would be a damn sight sexier to look at than a Tesla. Would it be so technologically brilliant? Im not so sure! But you know for sure it would have a better finish than the Model S Plaid.

 

[cardfan]

So much stupid in this rumor. We’ll never see an apple car. Poor Tim. No vision.

 

[Schizoid]

Apple would be making a huge mistake getting into the automobile industry.

As a realistic estimate as to when a brand new Apple car will be available worldwide, let’s say 2030… the real car manufacturers will have such a head start in terms of design, testing, battery tech, charging infrastructure etc. Apple will be onto a loser from the off. Making smart speakers nobody wants is one thing, but can they absorb a multi-billion dollar car failure?

 

[SD449]

Do you think they will go the Tesla route and sell actual cars?

I envision it more as a Waymo competitor

 

[Psychicbob]

It scares me. My Apple Car shutting down randomly when the battery is at 20%. I’m not sure I want to drive a car with a bizarre camera bump on the roof either.

 

[Freida]

I agree with Musk that eventually we won't be allowed to drive cars at all. It will all be automated and we won't have cars ownership. Its far far away but that is what will happen.

Virtually everything you’ve said could have been applied to the phone market before iPhone. Hard, need to be reliable and safe, require partnerships with telecoms to sell or they’re just a fancy brick, it’s a phone, not a computer, so apple should stick to what they know.

Tesla considers their cars to be robots. I think people need to stop thinking of cars like the crude vehicles we’ve known for the past century to understand what apple is doing. Phones dramatically changed because of apple. Cars will, too.

 

[citysnaps]

Tesla's been at this a while and still has manufacturing issues.

Companies like Hyundai and Kia they wanted to work with, which are now reliable, took a long time to get there.

I had a friend around the year 2000 who had a Kia, and I said how impressive it was they had a 10 year warranty. Her response was: You'll need it every day for those 10 years.

But their reputation now is really good.

I don't think Apple can go from 0 to 100 on this. And they're going to want to charge a premium.

I'm not sure how safe I would feel in an Apple car built in house when I think of quality control problems they have with much simpler to assemble tech.

They should have bought Tesla if they really wanted to go down this car path. Why they would want to go down this car path and what they think they could add is beyond me.

"Why they would want to go down this car path and what they think they could add is beyond me."

For the same reason Apple decided to get into the cellular handset market when that was OWNED by Motorola, Ericsson, and Nokia - the giants in cellular telecom, collectively known as MEN in that industry.

I remember the same pushback from tech forum "experts" that we're seeing here today. And all the reasons why Apple would fail in that market.

Thank god for American companies willing to take chances rather than sitting in comfortable stasis.

 

[Freida]

Ok, I get it. You had to get this cheese out of the system. Feeling better now?

It scares me. My Apple Car shutting down randomly when the battery is at 20%. I’m not sure I want to drive a car with a bizarre camera bump on the roof either.

 

[HiVolt]

Virtually everything you’ve said could have been applied to the phone market before iPhone. Hard, need to be reliable and safe, require partnerships with telecoms to sell or they’re just a fancy brick, it’s a phone, not a computer, so apple should stick to what they know.

Yeah except the iPhone is a small electronic device. a vehicle to be built from ground up doesn't just happen overnight.

Just look at Tesla, how long it's taken them to get their body manufacturing processes, because they didn't have the expertise of doing so. And it's still not to the level of the major players.

I watched a video a few years ago of a former auto executive explaining how much more primitive and expensive Tesla's body assembly was - this was on the Model S, so things might have improved since that's a very old platform.

 

[mave1969]

"…virtually is believed to have stopped operating…"

What? Can we try that again in English?

 

[mave1969]

Yeah except the iPhone is a small electronic device. a vehicle to be built from ground up doesn't just happen overnight.

Hilarious.

 

[PlainviewX]

If it's indeed a car, it's a minimum of decade away from the first mass produced car to hit the streets.

 

[Aston441]

... and this was how Chinese manufacturing eventually completely dominated the US auto market...

 

[Robert.Walter]

they are so behind this its crazy. Tesla will be waving them in the rear mirror.

I'm all up for Apple car but I think that they won't be able to compete once Tesla sorts out its production issues

Detroit said the same about the Japanese in the 1970’s.

Now look at things.

Never underestimate a determined competitor.

 

[Robert.Walter]

If it's indeed a car, it's a minimum of decade away from the first mass produced car to hit the streets.

You apparently never worked for an OEM.

 

[HiVolt]

Detroit said the same about the Japanese in the 1970’s.

Now look at things.

Never underestimate a determined competitor.

Yeah except the Japanese were already building cars.

Don't forget, Apple doesn't manufacture anything themselves. With a car it might have to be different.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

By the time Apple releases Apple Car. People may lose the interests.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Apple is the only one that has no big issues with that because Apple bought 75% of TSMC manufacture capacity until 2024 for now (probably they will make a new deal by then to expand that)
Thats why the other companies have the real issues

Besides, Apple has so much capital on hand that they could fund their own chip foundries if they wanted to.