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Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

reuters.com

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Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#351

Post by adrr »

yazaddaruvala wrote: post #271

Apple, will not make a car. They will make carOS, the UX that is built into other companies' cars. Basically, they will build software, the steering wheel, the whole from dash, maybe even a backseat interface, and internal software (excluding hardware drivers), and standardize the UX across every automaker. Kinda like what Android did for phones, but Apple will enforce stricter regulations for carOS.

Apple isn’t a software company. They are a hardware company that focuses on software to showcase their hardware.

They are the opposite of Microsoft which is a software company that makes hardware to showcase their software.

I can’t even run the later safari on a non apple product.

Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#352

Post by jeffbee »

balls187 wrote: post #249
nolangerner wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"In theory, Tesla shouldn't be worth what it is because the tech behind it is increasingly getting commoditized (though they work hard to stay slightly ahead). But people love Tesla and it's the first choice EV because they've really thought through the UX of a semi-self driving car EV thoroughly". No need to theorize at this point. Plenty have pointed out how overinflated Teslas value is at this point. It's pretty m…

Have you driven Tesla and other comparable EV's? From my experience, Tesla's tech (I drive a VW) is ahead of their competition pretty handily. The new Ford Mustang Mach looks competitive, but even that is still at least 9 months away. The VW id4 EV is sold out, and they are taking pre-orders for the next batch. Tesla has first mover advantage when it comes to mass market EV's. It's not just cult of personality.

> first mover advantage

Did you mean second? There actually can be a lot of advantage to being the second mover. Nissan had already sold 100000 units of the Leaf between 2010-2014, while Tesla had sold up to that point only 16k cars. Clearly, Tesla wasn't the first mass-market EV. Indeed, it seems obvious in hindsight that Tesla's success owed mainly to ignoring the mass market and selling very expensive cars at first.

Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#353

Post by misiti3780 »

anupamchugh wrote: post #346
misiti3780 wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla is an electric car company and an energy company, and they are leading both sectors right now. You can say that their market cap should not be greater than Toyota or Ford etc because the number of vehicles they produce is a lot smaller, but the world is going electric (really, renewable) and Tesla is tee-ed up to take large chunks of the solar panel and car markets. They have said they are going to produce a sm…

But we can’t ignore Apple’s ability to sway people towards their products. Apple fans treat those products like jewellery and Tesla may not be the premium flagship car that it’s aiming to be after a few years

That is true for sure, and we will have to wait and see. I know Apple has a lot of money but they also have a lot of catching up to do.

Building car companies from scratch is really, really hard.

Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#354

Post by jbullock35 »

baybal2 wrote: post #310
tobr wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Past performance is not indicative of future results etc, but you’re right, this is basically exactly what Palm CEO Ed Colligan said about the rumored iPhone a few months before it was revealed[1]: > “We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” he said. “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.” 1: https://daringfireball.net/2006/…

And they didn't. Iphone 1 was far from a commercial success. 3GS was the first one that approached the cult status. It tool them 4 generations to get there, and a lot of money.

> Iphone 1 was far from a commercial success.

I don't think that's true. For example, less than a year after its release, the iPhone accounted for 28% of smartphones sold in the U.S. (and presumably for a greater percentage of smartphone-sale revenue): see https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2008/02/iphone-owns-28-perce....

And half a year after that, the news was better still: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2008/10/apple-officially-sur...

Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#355

Post by iancmceachern »

tuatoru wrote: post #333
foxtr0t wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite becoming more similar in recent years, the cell phone supply chain is still very different than the automotive supply chain. The number of parts/unit differs by an order of magnitude and so does the size and weight, not to mention manufacturing techniques and materials. These are capabilities, not so much skills, and they aren't as transferable as you may think. For instance, logistically things are very diff…

The regulatory differences are also huge. Apple has negliglible experience dealing with the raft of certifications and demonstrations of compliance that car manufacturers have to go through.

They have been working in a similar highly regulated space (medical devices) for years.

Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#357

Post by eightails »

kansface wrote: post #321
christophilus wrote: post #285

If I was an Apple shareholder (I guess I am, indirectly through Berkshire), this would piss me off. Apple is in a very good business. Cars are a terrible business. Just compare Apple’s margins to any car company. Also, it’s really hard to move into a business that is widely outside your core competency. It can be done, but the effort is huge, and I suspect the median track record is poor.

I'm a small time Apple shareholder and have the opposite reaction. Apple is sitting on 300 billion in cash - I expect them to do something with it. They need to move into some other market because their existing ones are tapped out. Cars are a great fit: 1. Big enough market for an investment of 10s of billions 2. Its international (quit a bit of that money is stuck overseas) 3. Making electric cars isn't too hard (s…

> Making electric cars isn't too hard (see Tesla)

I don't know, I think Tesla is a good example of how difficult it is to penetrate the car market as a new company. It took them nearly 20 years to get where they are today, and it's not like that was 20 years of smooth sailing. From what I've read they came close to going under multiple times. Aren't they the first major new US car company to start up and not go under since the early 20th century?

The situation for Apple is certainly different, given their size and the massive leaps in terms of EV tech compared to when Tesla started out, but let's not trivialise the complexity of the task and the inherent financial expenditure and risk.

Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#358

Post by oblio »

aritraghosh007 wrote: post #192
oblio wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Monopoly on what? They sell about 0.5% of the cars sold worldwide.

Yet worth more than all the car makers combined! Tesla's supercharging network and battery production capabilities is a match for just a handful today

Tulips were at some point worth about 10% of the world economy.

As they say, the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent, so I'm not going to bet against Tesla. However I'd be shocked if Tesla will be a top 5 car manufacturer 10 years from now.

Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#359

Post by contingencies »

jandrese wrote: post #313
finnh wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple is fundamentally now a company that can move immense amounts of capital into new industries with the underlying ethos of user experience. Also: insane supply-chain management chops, a skill that is more and more transferable - especially for electric cars.

I can just see Apple now, milling the entire body of the car out of a single block of aluminum using a 4 axis C&C machine.

You would typically use five axes for complex parts unless there was a compelling reason not to. Interestingly, as I am buying one at the moment (our first) I had a chance to talk to different machine shops about their different brands here in China. They alleged that foreign dual use export restrictions have resulted in a situation where China's local five axis machines are now both cheaper and more accurate than the available foreign imports (source: major prototyping shop, machine count >20, machine brands 3x, 5 axis count 10+). This was supported by the second shop I visited who also said they will no longer buy imports.

Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#360

Post by jaimex2 »

This will be fun to watch unfold. A company with no innovative leadership since Jobs will get a bunch of Tesla rejects to build a an electric car with pie in the sky battery tech. If it doesn't need lithium they might have a shot.

Also Apple isn't known for being a machine learning company, I'm sure the car will be very pretty but they're kidding themselves if they think they are making a self driving system that to sell. MobilEye already has that covered quite well.

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