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Apple Car expected to shake up auto industry in Asia and world

asia.nikkei.com

21–30 of 90 posts

Re: Apple Car expected to shake up auto industry in Asia and world

#21
I'd love to hear more about the potential future of gross margins on any automotive Apple products. I've heard auto manufacturers have notoriously low margins, but in reality they seem just as fine as any other business.

That being said, those same margins are not at all within the realm of what Apple current enjoys. That all means unless some further accounting engineering goes on, it spells a less attractive future for Apple in terms of overall margins, but one would hope a better future in terms of free cash flow. Apple already obscures some details from shareholders in ways that I find less than scrupulous.

Re: Apple Car expected to shake up auto industry in Asia and world

#22

Why a car though? I understand Apple are all about the mobile now, but a car? I suspect it isnt a car, but maybe some sort of information or auto navigation intergrations.

Why a watch? Why (ear/head)phones? Why a phone in the first place?

Rumors are that Apple is working on VR Glove & AR glasses.

They're taking things that people use every day and cramming as much functionality into software as their hardware will allow.

Sort of joking sort of not: Eventually there will people wearing full sets of Apple accessories, getting into their Apple car, driving to an Apple home... And all the technology will be seamless (or as seamless as they can make it based on their current track record.)

Re: Apple Car expected to shake up auto industry in Asia and world

#23

Why a car though? I understand Apple are all about the mobile now, but a car? I suspect it isnt a car, but maybe some sort of information or auto navigation intergrations.

It's a good question. I imagine they envision a lot of potential for integration in their ecosystem. iPhone in your pocket, HomePod in your home, MacBook at work, Watch while you exercise, and Car for your commute. Presumably opportunity to seamlessly integrate your infotainment, navigation, Siri, etc in a way that other vendors can't while charging a steep premium?

I guess the theme is "things which exist but could be made better by integrating the Apple ecosystem (esp in ways that other vendors can't compete against for lack of a comparable ecosystem), and for which people will pay a premium".

Re: Apple Car expected to shake up auto industry in Asia and world

#24
post #8

why is everyone so naive and expects a regular car? i will probably be some kind of 3-wheeler for 1 person or some gadget thing.

I think a 3 wheel car is just pragmatically worse than a 4 wheel one. It would also be "uncool" which would make it really far off-brand for Apple. If it's intended to take you on roughly the same trips that a normal car is (to the grocery store/work/school/whatever generally 30+ minutes away) it basically will necessarily just be something that looks a lot like a regular car.

[deleted]

Re: Apple Car expected to shake up auto industry in Asia and world

#25

In the context of recent events... If there is a planned demonstration of some uncouth people in a certain place, will your Apple Car simply refuse to drive you there? Or will it stop serving you once your GPS coordinates from your iPhone show that you were actually there? These would be absurd, almost troll-level questions a year ago, but I feel that now they must be pondered. Edit: from 4 to -2 points within two mi…

Pick between the news headlines: * Apple car found to have transported terrorists to sabotage Capitol building. Should those with morals be boycotting Apple? * Apple refuses service to terrorists. Apple tries to hold the country together and keep peace. If you were Apple, and had to pick between those headlines, which would you pick? When your company is built on your brand, it is suicide to associate yourself with s…

You do whatever you want and then ban anything and anybody publishing anti-Apple headlines in your platforms. Win win!

Re: Apple Car expected to shake up auto industry in Asia and world

#26
post #9

It's always, always, always foolish to bet against Apple nowadays. But for the life of me I can't see this car being anything other than mildly interesting unless it can fly.

Flying cars (well, human scale drones with autopilots) are definitely something I can believe Apple would do.

I don't think they have done it or started projects to look at it yet or we'd have heard rumors already, but I definitely think they'd be interested.

Re: Apple Car expected to shake up auto industry in Asia and world

#27

In the context of recent events... If there is a planned demonstration of some uncouth people in a certain place, will your Apple Car simply refuse to drive you there? Or will it stop serving you once your GPS coordinates from your iPhone show that you were actually there? These would be absurd, almost troll-level questions a year ago, but I feel that now they must be pondered. Edit: from 4 to -2 points within two mi…

The tech companies are just ahead of regulation on this. That’s not to say, that banning the president of America, from a platform isn’t problematic or that big tech lacks the public mandate to do so. But that doesn’t change the fact, that right wingers can expect to see their freedoms limited if they continue to pose a danger to society.

I think you can expect to see the EU simentaniously work to regulate big tech and any platform that houses right wing terrorists. Just like it does with ISIS related networks.

It’s just that it takes more time for the democratic bureaucracy to grind into gear.

Re: Apple Car expected to shake up auto industry in Asia and world

#28

In the context of recent events... If there is a planned demonstration of some uncouth people in a certain place, will your Apple Car simply refuse to drive you there? Or will it stop serving you once your GPS coordinates from your iPhone show that you were actually there? These would be absurd, almost troll-level questions a year ago, but I feel that now they must be pondered. Edit: from 4 to -2 points within two mi…

Imagine Apple closes your iCloud account for some vague terms of service violation -- and it bricks your (very expensive) car.

Re: Apple Car expected to shake up auto industry in Asia and world

#29

Why a car though? I understand Apple are all about the mobile now, but a car? I suspect it isnt a car, but maybe some sort of information or auto navigation intergrations.

I have a Prius and I'm one of the apparent few Prius owners that hate it. Not because of the mileage--I've heard that the Prius hybrid engine is some top-notch engineering.

No, I hate my Prius because there are so many little things that make it obnoxious to use. When I first bought it, after a day I took it back to the dealership and told them to either disable to "beep" that it did when in reverse or take the car back. They disabled the beep but, speaking of beeps; my god the beeping! It has a nice feature that when I get out of the car all I need do to lock it is touch the handle and it'll lock all the doors. Except if one door is still open and then it will play a constant beep for about 10 seconds which is, simply put, infuriating. Doesn't help that my son takes forever to get out of a car for some reason.

Almost every button on the console is backlit, as one would expect, except for the gear shifter. No, in order to light that, they put a light on the ceiling of the car that shines down on the shifter so you can see it at night. Why? Why not backlight the shifter like all the buttons around it?

It's for these and many, many other reasons I'm looking forward to an Apple Car. Apple's attention to detail. That's not to say Apple is perfect in this regard (I'm thinking of the Podcasts app, as one example) But it's clear that Toyota along with the other old-guard auto manufacturers have somehow gotten lazy or can't get out of their own way.

It's nice to see fresh ideas come out of the likes of Tesla (manufacturing quality notwithstanding) and I'm looking forward to seeing what Apple comes up with.

I'm not, however, looking forward to that inevitable giant price tag.

Re: Apple Car expected to shake up auto industry in Asia and world

#30

This is too early to say but i am keeping my hopes with Apple car reasonable. I doubt they can reach Tesla level vertically integrated manufacturing capability without a similar culture. Tesla in 2023 itself is going to be on a different level as the new cells, structural design and probably a few acquisitions in mining work out. But, competition is good and the richest corporation in the world can hopefully create s…

> I doubt they can reach Tesla level vertically integrated manufacturing capability without a similar culture.

Apple is not a manufacturing company. With their existing products, they are vertically integrated in _design_ from SOCs to the software.

I would expect to see a similar trajectory with the cars. They'll design a lot of the pieces, but won't manufacture any of it.

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