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Volkswagen CEO Skeptical About Apple Car, Believes in CarPlay-Only Approach

If I recall correctly Steve Jobs at one point called Apple a software company not a hardware company — although now it is the integration of soft and hardware that is Apple’s core strength. But in this industry, better to design a universal CarOS me thinks.
 
He should contact that intel ceo and ask him how it went for intel when they were skeptical about apple.
 
Totally agree. Apple would not want to be a car maker, no way. Just like all the other folks that thought Apple would start making "Smart TVs" many years back. They didn't but boy did the rumor mill think it was a possibility, but it didn't make sense that they'd want to get into such a low margin, fickle maket like TVs (like HOW MANY sizes would they want to sell, they usually like THREE!) Instead they got AppleTV/AirPlay 2 software on various Smart TVs.

Same for cars, they don't want to make cars, they just want to focus on the experience within it. Kinda like BASF's old commercials "We don't make the products you use, we make the products you use better". For cars I think they'd want to stay aware from all the RISK and compliance automobile manufacturing would require. Too much hassle! iOS reporting on car systems status (speed being the most important) is as much rish as they'd like to assume... I assume.
 
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bsbeamer said:
Making the user experience better in every single car that "just" supports CarPlay could be a higher revenue generator for Apple than physically making cars.

Still wish Apple would let you enable some versions of a CarPlay mode on your phone without having to physically be connected to a car that supports CarPlay. It would be much safer and easier when driving older vehicles, especially on ones that only have connection for audio. Most people are mounting their phone in the screen position anyway.
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this i wish to use carplay on my phone while riding my motorcycle
 
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I agree with him. The iPhone came into a market, where everyone agreed that the phones of the time were dumb and restricted with bad user experience. This is not the case for cars. cars are not the problem, the problem is that there are too many of them, which reduces user experience. Putting more cars on to the road will not solve this. also, Apple won’t be able to get customers to buy a new iCar every 1-3 years.
 
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Leon Ze Professional said:
It's funny listening to CEO's who are in a state of denial. Delusional paranoia.
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Denial?
Delusional?
Paranoia?
Where exactly did you come up with any of that nonsense? Especially the last 2. Where's the delusion and where's the paranoia? It was actually a fairly reasonable take on the situation, considering how long Project Titan has been rumored.
Back when the iPhone was coming out, people were right to be skeptical. They hadn't counted on a visionary CEO and brilliant designers. Apple definitely flipped the world upside down with the iPhone.

But the conditions then aren't necessarily the conditions now. Apple still probably has brilliant designers but it doesn't have a visionary CEO. And I wouldn't be too sure of brilliant designers. Not on the auto team anyway. Brilliant people don't tend to stay on projects that are languishing and/or going nowhere. Neither you nor I know, of course, but Project Titan does appear to be in that latter category. And there are some very exciting companies that are probably very attractive places to go work, where an engineer might have much greater prospects of seeing his or her efforts actually appear and change the world. Tesla being one, but definitely not the only one. Not these days.
And what exactly do you picture Apple making? Whatever you're imagining, it's mainly a daydream you've come up with, sans evidence. A self driving car? That's what I wanted them to make. But nobody's been able to make one of those.
And holy crap these electrics are expensive. Imaging Apple adding its margins on top of that.
The Volkswagen CEO's opinions aren't delusional, and they're definitely not paranoid. And they're not in denial. They seem to be fairly rational. They might be wrong. But they're far more likely to be right.
 
The Cappy said:
Denial?
Delusional?
Paranoia?
Where exactly did you come up with any of that nonsense? Especially the last 2. Where's the delusion and where's the paranoia? It was actually a fairly reasonable take on the situation, considering how long Project Titan has been rumored.
Back when the iPhone was coming out, people were right to be skeptical. They hadn't counted on a visionary CEO and brilliant designers. Apple definitely flipped the world upside down with the iPhone.

But the conditions then aren't necessarily the conditions now. Apple still probably has brilliant designers but it doesn't have a visionary CEO. And I wouldn't be too sure of brilliant designers. Not on the auto team anyway. Brilliant people don't tend to stay on projects that are languishing and/or going nowhere. Neither you nor I know, of course, but Project Titan does appear to be in that latter category. And there are some very exciting companies that are probably very attractive places to go work, where an engineer might have much greater prospects of seeing his or her efforts actually appear and change the world. Tesla being one, but definitely not the only one. Not these days.
And what exactly do you picture Apple making? Whatever you're imagining, it's mainly a daydream you've come up with, sans evidence. A self driving car? That's what I wanted them to make. But nobody's been able to make one of those.
And holy crap these electrics are expensive. Imaging Apple adding its margins on top of that.
The Volkswagen CEO's opinions aren't delusional, and they're definitely not paranoid. And they're not in denial. They seem to be fairly rational. They might be wrong. But they're far more likely to be right.
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And even with a visionary CEO and visionary designers, they’d probably come up with Tesla, which is a company that’s already trying to do the Apple approach to cars. It’s a crowded market, more than it’s ever been.

When it comes to Nintendo and the Internet, there always seems to be this section of the peanut gallery trying to get Nintendo to do stupid things that’ll harm them in the long run, the Bad Ideas Crowd. To be fair, the Bad Ideas Crowd may not realize that their ideas are bad (they may, for instance, legitimately want Nintendo to more closely resemble Sony or Microsoft, not realizing that it would prevent Nintendo from playing to its strengths), but that doesn’t change the fact that their ideas would be more harmful than beneficial in the long run. Seems like Apple probably has a Bad Ideas Crowd buzzing around, too. It’s not that Apple couldn’t possibly do something really novel in the car space, it’s more that doing so might not be especially economically viable.
 
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Spaceboi Scaphandre said:
Not to mention the legality of a whole car and the other logistical issues it brings. Apple is notorious for being anti-repair. You really want that in a whole car? There's already countless Apple Car jokes of having to replace the whole car if it gets one flat tire or a fender bender.

Plus let's not forget the rumored Apple Car is self driving which don't even get me started on the nightmare that will cause. Tesla's Autopilot already has a killcount to it. If that happens with Apple Car, the feds are gonna be cracking down on Apple harder than they are right now. Fully self driving forget it. That will never be street legal as no governing body will trust it especially after the Tesla death toll.
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Wow. A killcount you say? Only the worst of the worst could have one of those. Except...

Tesla: 1 Crash Per 4.41 Million Miles Traveled On Autopilot - CleanTechnica

Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe. In light of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s response to Kim Paquette about how safe Tesla vehicles are, I wanted to share a quick comparison between Tesla’s data and overall auto accident data from the National Highway Traffic...
cleantechnica.com cleantechnica.com

This was from 2021, but it includes numbers going back to 2018 so you can see the trends.

NHTSA figures show 0.5 million miles between accidents on average.
Tesla with autopilot off, safety features off: 1.25 million miles between accidents.
Tesla with autopilot on: 4.4 million miles between accidents.

I point this out as someone does doesn't own a Tesla, doesn't work for Tesla, and owns no Tesla stock. But you're a classic example of how easy it is for dishonest reporters to plant false notions in the minds of lazy and ignorant readers. They tell you one thing over and over, and since you don't bother to check facts, you figure that the one thing you keep hearing about is disproportionately high and obviously something to be reviled. I mean, you are here posting on the internet, connected to this vast store of information and... yeah. Did you no good at all.
 
Apple would never be able to build its own car. They can't even manage to construct a simple charging plate. An Apple car would be expensive, with completely pointless functions, a poor voice assistant and an outdated design. Like an iPhone 8 for 2000 €
 
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Spaceboi Scaphandre said:
I'm wondering if Apple Car was even a thing or if it was a fake project just for Apple to sniff out sources leaking their work. Whenever new Apple Car rumors popped up a manager could point "THAT GUY DID IT! GET HIM OUT OF HERE!"
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I think Apple was testing car software using cars in house and people mistook it for "Apple is building a car!"
 
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Roberto1234 said:
Apple would never be able to build its own car. They can't even manage to construct a simple charging plate. An Apple car would be expensive, with completely pointless functions, a poor voice assistant and an outdated design. Like an iPhone 8 for 2000 €
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You forgot to mention that it will not come with a charger. The base model will only have enough battery storage to take you to the end of road and extra capacity will cost 256 miles == $20,000 && 512 miles == $40,000.

Apple's dashboard stage manager, allowing you to see multiple dials won't be available at launch and only available on the upper end models.
 
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Mojohanna32 said:
This is what Blackberry said about the iPhone. VW is a bit larger (lol) than BB, but I would not take Apple lightly based on past evidence.
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I disagree because the window for an Apple car has been and gone and your logic forgets about Tesla who are akin to Apple under Steve Jobs return and Apple is more akin to Blackberry regarding cars.
I am an Apple fan but regarding the car they blew it because of Tim Cook who is a finance guy NOT a product guy.
 
djcerla said:
This makes no sense.

Apple has proven time and time again to be a hardware master, basically unmatched in the industries they choose to compete. Car hardware is a commodity, it’s got nothing intrinsic that Apple can’t do or improve.
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It does as a car is not a giant computer just because there is electronics inside. It is also about the management and sadly Tim screwed that up as the project has been started and stopped and changed more times than I care to remember.
That is not a recipe for success.
 
Sciomar said:
Gotta downplay the competitor enough publicly to get the people skeptical and unwilling to put money into it, whatever it takes to save your slice of the market right VW. Trouble is there is enough experience with the good and bad of Apple for the general public to still be willing to give an Apple car a try. That and there are enough desperate youtubers looking to monetize anything they can get their hands on to avoid regular jobs.
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Hate to break it to you but an Apple car will never happen.
 
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