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But, wait, everyone... The future is NOT about owning your own car and spending $14k or more on it. You rely on the cloud for most of your data and use lightweight computers - similarly the future is in transports as a service. Integrated transportation solutions, i.e. what Uber is building. And public transports (high-speed trains...).

I think Apple should invest in self-driving, mapping and power grid management technologies - not in building a $$$$$ piece of metal and plastic that'll spend 95% of its time cluttering public space (i.e. parked), unused.

The car pictured in this rumor makes me think of the Bluecar by Bollore Technologies - cheap, robust, lightweight, and part of a self-service scheme (https://www.autolib.eu/en/). So maybe Apple is trying to compete with that, and with Uber, not with Tesla.
Sorry, you can have my car when I'm dead but not a minute before. Not everyone wants to uber or lives in big urban areas with everything in walking distance. And some of us like driving our cars thank you very much.
 
The source article simply says that Jobs was an adviser to that company.

It said nothing about he himself being interested in building such a machine. In fact, if you think about it, that'd be a conflict of interest, and such a meeting would appear as an attempt to steal a competitor's knowledge.

--

Articles like this seem to prompt some people try to retcon Apple history, in this case to make it sound as if Jobs put a stamp of approval on an Apple car project.

If Jobs was interested in electric or shared transportation, he sure didn't show it from what he himself drove. I mean seriously, the guy bought a new Mercedes every six months just to avoid having a license plate.

You read the source article? That will never do.
 
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You sir, win the absurd award for the internets. 5 minutes? Yes, just like your iPhone charges in 5 minutes...

Tell it to Tesla. They say that they're working on sub 10min charge.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/...aims-to-charge-electric-cars-in-five-minutes/
http://fortune.com/2015/08/19/electric-car-battery-charges-minutes/

So before smearing someone, please check if at least one of the leading companies in the industry is hinting at the fact that it might be possible in the not too far future. I certainly hope that they can do it.

I can't imagine the charging getting that much better than it already is. The Tesla supercharger is pretty good. A 30 minute charge will give you about 170 miles. I find that to be adequate.

170 miles adequate? Are you serious?
Last weekend I drove from DFW to Hutchinson, KS and then back. 509 miles going. End of trip mileage was 882.8 miles.
Math is not an opinion, therefore 882.8mi is approx 5 charges. 4 charges (*) x 30 mins = 2 hours added to my trip. If I am lucky. Just to rechargea battery! (*)I removed one charge because of the overnight stay.
You're telling me that a $70K+ car that limits my range, and adds travel time is good?

Sure it's not the best road tripping car, but when you'll be charging nightly in your garage it's perfect. (also for tesla the charging will be free!)

It depends where you live. In TX after 170 miles I am... still here.
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Sorry, you can have my car when I'm dead but not a minute before. Not everyone wants to uber or lives in big urban areas with everything in walking distance. And some of us like driving our cars thank you very much.

Agreed.
I am all in for public transportation, but not at the price of my freedom of using my car whenever I want to, in total privacy.
 
The only reason why Steve Jobs would want a "cheaper" car would be so Apple can make more profit per sale of each car. Making a sub-$10k car but charging $35k or more is akin to how Apple operates.

The idea of Apple mass producing an "affordable" EV car without an excessive Apple Tax on it is implausible given Apple's entire history; it would spell a complete change in how Apple operates to suddenly shift focus towards value priced and high volume sales model vs high profit - relatively low volume sales they have been used to.

I would be nice for Apple to take their excessive billions in profit and do something beneficial to society by offering a car that has less impact and burden on the environment and is easy to afford and drive so that low to middle income families can get them, but that idea is the complete antithesis of how Apple operates in general. High priced products for alpha consumers, I don't expect ANY Apple car to be released to market under $40k.
 
Tesla has nothing to fear of Apple is going to be modeling it’s car using the BMW frame.

I disagree. Design-wise, Teslas are pretty mundane and generic looking. BMW's design (including choice of materials) is futuristic, stands out and is very functional. And like any great design, it can be polarizing at first. I can see why Apple is more interested in BMW than Tesla.

If you want a more traditional, sporty looking car, the i8 is gorgeous and far more distinctive than the Tesla S which is easily confused with half a dozen other brands. A guy in my building just bought one and it looks fantastic.
 
serious question (I am clueless about the subject): how long does it take to recharge an electric car?
Unfortunately the answer is "it depends", with the two main factors being battery 'size' (capacity) and a charger type. Ultimately you can think about it like filling up with fuel. If you've got a big tank and a small hose it will take a long time...

A Tesla Model S can get an 80% charge in about 45 minutes at one of their high current DC "super chargers" but plugged into a 110V outlet in your house the same charge would take 15+ hours!
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So what happens if I get into an accident, I turn into mush?
That will depend entirely on how it's built. This logic that bigger is better is completely flawed. Vehicle crash tests are performed against concrete blocks and steel poles. If a car aces all the tests and is awarded 5 star plus safety ratings then it doesn't matter if it's a Smart Car or a Suburban, you'll survive the crash!
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I disagree. Design-wise, Teslas are pretty mundane and generic looking. BMW's design (including choice of materials) is futuristic, stands out and is very functional. And like any great design, it can be polarizing at first. I can see why Apple is more interested in BMW than Tesla.

If you want a more traditional, sporty looking car, the i8 is gorgeous and far more distinctive than the Tesla S which is easily confused with half a dozen other brands. A guy in my building just bought one and it looks fantastic.
I would agree to an extent, but remember that the i8 is pitched as a niche coupe going up against something like the Porsche 911 so the starting design is inherently aerodynamic.

The key with electric and hybrid vehicles is the the lowest Cd (coefficient of drag) rating they can achieve in order to maximize the range of the vehicle. This automatically limits design options, hence why the Chevy Volt, Toyota Prius and Honda Insight all have a very similar 'wedge' profile.

I personally think Tesla has done a good job working within that basic shape to make a sleek car that maximizes interior space.
 
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Instead of thinking about the mac mini, apple display, mac pro and an iPhone that takes 2 minutes to start up Tim and Jony are making cars. They should both leave so someone can still think about computers and phones instead of cars
 
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There is a better/cooler way to lose weight!
nomad-2015-1a.jpg
 
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Lol a "cheaper" car? Does anyone think, if an apple car does materialize, that it will be "cheap"? We all know that Apple charges a premium for its goods... Not saying it won't sell well (I have no idea), but cheap? I don't think so...
 
170 miles adequate? Are you serious?
Last weekend I drove from DFW to Hutchinson, KS and then back. 509 miles going. End of trip mileage was 882.8 miles.
Math is not an opinion, therefore 882.8mi is approx 5 charges. 4 charges (*) x 30 mins = 2 hours added to my trip. If I am lucky. Just to rechargea battery! (*)I removed one charge because of the overnight stay.
You're telling me that a $70K+ car that limits my range, and adds travel time is good?

Here's a page that gets into all of the various possible ranges of Tesla cars, depending on model and type of driving:
https://www.teslamotors.com/blog/driving-range-model-s-family

Correcting the math, when you start each day, you would have available nearly the maximum range, which could vary by model, highway versus city driving, and speed, all the way from 183 to 295 miles. Using your example as a guide, I'll pick 270 miles. Then, when using the supercharger for a half hour, your get the 170 miles.

On the way out, you go 509 miles, which is 270 + 170 + 69 (509 total), meaning that you would need two charges, of possibly less than half an hour each, since you'd be well under for the last one, but likely wouldn't run it to near empty. Driving between 60 - 70 miles an hour, that's 7.25 - 8.5 hours of driving. I doubt most people would drive that much without stopping for a meal or bathroom at least once. So, in reality, I'd say you lose 20-30 minutes max to using electrical. I'd probably lose 15 minutes, for the breaks I'd take.

Overnight you would plug it in and fully recharge it. On the way back you'd go 270 + 104 (374 total), so this time just under one supercharge during the return trip. And with between 6.25 - 5.3 hours of driving, again, realistically most people would stop once anyways, for a meal or coffee and stretch, so it wouldn't add any real time, maybe 10 minutes max.

So no, I don't think that a half hour overhead (none for my usage) in two days driving is noticeable, and definitely is not 2 hours overhead, once you factor in overnight full charging and breaks people already take.
 
it's a $14k car focusing on being ultra-lightweight. It's not a Rolls.
There's no such thing as a Rolls Royce any more.
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Although rumors surrounding Apple's electric car project began intensifying after the vehicle's development sped up last September, a new report out of The Guardian looks back before all of the current hubbub began, at the "secret car" that became of special interest to former Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Called the V-Vehicle and created by industrial designer Bryan Thompson, Jobs flew the designer out to San Francisco in 2010 to discuss Thompson's plans for the car, and pick his brain on the status of the automotive industry as a whole.

thompson-v-vehicle-800x480.jpg

Thompson and the V-Vehicle


Thompson and his team created the V-Vehicle with the goal of constructing a disruptive force in the car industry with "a lightweight, petroleum-powered car that used cheaper materials and could sell for just $14,000." They had been working on it for two years when Jobs became interested in their progress, and invited Thompson to his home in Palo Alto to see it for himself.

According to Thompson, within their fifteen minutes together -- Jobs sitting in the driver side and Thompson in the passenger side -- he "learned more about plastics than in his years in design school and auto industry combined." The former Apple CEO discussed his thoughts on the V-Vehicle, focusing a lot of his time on the materials of its body, which were made of polypropylene and glass fibre. The results were a car that was 40 percent lighter than a normal steel-made vehicle, not to mention would cost 70 percent less capital to produce.

v-vehicle-interior-800x455.jpg

The inside of the V-Vehicle

Jobs continued to tip Thompson to take another look at the V-Vehicle's interior, telling him that "a taut surface has a sense that it's full of energy, like an animal ready to pounce. It's a subconscious thing that gives the product an impression of high quality and confidence." Thompson took Jobs' advice to heart and immediately began reworking a few subtle design changes in the car's interior on his flight back home.

Despite the V-Vehicle's potential for success, the business ultimately failed after venture funding evaporated and long-term plans for subsidized manufacturing plants failed due to tighter state budgets. Eventually, Thompson's designs were bought by LCV Capital Management in 2015, and V-Vehicle was renamed Next Autoworks, with a renewed plan to build the car in Italy.

Steve Jobs was said to have passed on building a car in 2008 to focus on the recently launched iPhone, although the former CEO remained interested in the vehicle project throughout the years. Rumors that have ultimately pegged the Apple Car for a 2020 launch began in early 2015, when mysterious vans linked to Apple began being spotted driving around Northern California.

v-vehicle-sketch-800x494.jpg

Thompson's redesigned interior sketch


Those were in fact related to a mapping project, as Apple confirmed later, but the media interest in the potential for an Apple-made vehicle continued to fuel rumors surrounding a car that could potentially "give Tesla a run for its money."

Now, some of Steve Jobs' hopes for the V-Vehicle might be coming to fruition, including Apple's rumored talks to use BMW's i3 as a basis for Project Titan, which would fall in line with Jobs' appreciation of a precise, lightweight unibody material thanks to its carbon fiber outer shell. Those talks reportedly didn't end in an inked deal, but could "resume at a later stage," according to sources within BMW.

You can read The Guardian's full story on the meeting between Steve Jobs and Bryan Thompson here.

Article Link: Steve Jobs Met With 'V-Vehicle' Creator in 2010 to Discuss Interest in a Cheaper, Lightweight Car
If Apple "reimagined" a car like this it would constantly overheat, would be impossible to repair and cost twice as much as anybody else's.
 
There's no such thing as a Rolls Royce any more.

He meant for 14 K it even rolls.

As for let plastic speak: (Like in a self help group)

Hello, I am plastic, I have been around for a long time.

(Self help group claps)

I do not get the respect I deserve and will have to live with at
and maybe even a bigger failure until 2020.

Self help group claps and hugs developer.

Apple should patent the name:

vHicle

before SAMSUNG or Google do.
 
I'm not going to drive this. Ever.
Considering it was just a prototype that's probably true.
[doublepost=1465493507][/doublepost]tl;dr read summary of the article.

Steve Jobs was interested in an Apple Car. He heard about the V-Vehicle and thought the concept was interesting - light and less expensive to make. He didn't like the interior and we don't know his thoughts on anything else related to the short meeting.
 
Expect longer delays in the release of the Apple Car because Jony Ive needs to reinvent the wheel
 
" and could sell for just $14,000."

There are quite a few new $14,000 cars in 2016. Im sure there were a few more in 2010. I dont see how this would have been able to steal anyone from known and established brands.
 
So anyone who has been saying Steve wouldn't have done this can stop now.

Hmmm. In this story he could have, but he didn't. Instead he focused on Apple competencies and came out with the iPhone.
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So anyone who has been saying Steve wouldn't have done this can stop now.

Hmmm. In this story he could have, but he didn't. Instead he focused on Apple competencies and came out with the iPhone.
 
Wow I just googled... 10 hours in some cars, 4 hours in others... 1 hour if your very very very lucky.
No effin way I would spend the $ on an electric car. I truly hope they find a way to recharge in 5 mins max.
That's the main drawback of electric cars. They're fine for commuting. Unplug, drive to work (possibly plug in again at work), drive back home, plug in to charge overnight. But most people don't use their car exclusively for commuting. So they'd have to carefully plan longer trips with extended stops every few hundred miles or rent another car for those trips.
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Apple wants to make a Fiat?
Looking at the V, I first thought it was the bottom half of the Renault logo.
 
This story is from 2010. The iPhone was already out for three years. He died a year later, not enough time to work on a car.

Steve Jobs was working right up to the end according to reports. His legacy will include the Watch, the TV, and the Car, though not necessarily the implementation. I'm not aware of any other rumors that Apple has been working on any other areas. So, finally they may on their own. But at those three products certainly have the potential to drive Apple for another decade.
 
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