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

asia.nikkei.com

31–40 of 90 posts

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

#31

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.

Because the 5th most valuable company today in America is a car company. Even if Apple Car can be 10% of Tesla that's worth 80 billion dollars.

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

#32
post #2

As much as I love Apple, they can't even get Siri to work right, how would they be able to do proper Tesla level AI is beyond me.

What's 'Tesla level' AI? Is it just their dangerously misnamed 'self driving' tech that's really just adaptive cruise control that every manufacturer has?

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

#33

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…

Who decides who is a terrorist ?

You’ve just handed over the role of government to Apple.

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

#35

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…

What I can see is some geofencing of sensitive areas like we do for airports.

However, the down side is that unlike the FAA this might be abused.

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

#36

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…

A lot of the reason margins are so thin is because the suppliers now make more money than the actual carmakers. If there's one thing Apple's good at it, it's squeezing suppliers on costs. Going EV also helps here, as there's fewer parts required.

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

#37

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.

Cars are in the process of transitioning to consumer electronics software devices.

That’s a good fit for Apple and the others in this space (except for tesla) have no ability to execute on software (or even EVs really). The old car companies are dumb and slow and their industrial design mostly sucks. [0]

I think it makes sense, particularly if you model the future as autonomous vehicles and AR as the next platform.

People will be in their cars using their Apple devices and doing other things while in transit. The car will be a lot different than today in that future and Apple wants to be part of that design.

This is a massive winner take all (or possibly duopoly) market in a way similar to phone platforms.

[edit] In the US the dealership model hamstrings legacy car manufacturers from making important changes. These dealerships have legislated their existence and block things like OTA updates. They're staffed largely by people who dislike EVs and don't really understand the product. This is another big problem for any legacy manufacturer trying to make a big shift.

[0]: For an example of dumbness, GM bought Cruise (smart) and then relegated them to a single product at the edge of their line (dumb). They don't realize what they have or the existential threat they face. I don't hold out hope for any of them.

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

#38
Somewhat meta: Is anybody else getting kinda sick of the hype cycle that drives all of these incredibly speculative announcements? The kind of rabid fandom this hype creates is something we really don't need.

Seriously, we need a lot less hype and a lot more products in our hands (ideally at a lower price due to the reduced marketing spend to build all this BS hype).

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

#39
post #2

As much as I love Apple, they can't even get Siri to work right, how would they be able to do proper Tesla level AI is beyond me.

Their problem with Siri is that their stance on privacy gets in the way in this regard. They won't mine and use the massive amounts of data that they need to train their AI.

To your point; that does mean they probably won't have as good a driver assist system as others because to do so would mean they would have to keep tabs on where and how people drive.

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

#40

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.

Apple already tried that with BMW apparently. BMW went along with it until Apple wanted to use Apple branding instead of BMW. That ended the contract. I guess Apple has to find a Car manufacturer who wants to turn into a supplier for apple instead.
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