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Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

bloomberg.com

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Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#481

Post by brailsafe »

genghisjahn wrote: post #431
brailsafe wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue this is true of a lot of cities where you're likely to bump into anyone, depending on how narrow your scope is of what one considers interesting. Also true of probably most universities if they're doing anything right. The problem with some particularly uptight places is that people aren't always open to chatting (or maybe under strict NDA), and you want to find a place on that nice area of the venn diagram…

I’m in Philly and about 20 years ago I sat next to an old man at a dinner for something. Neither of us wanted to be there. We talked, found out we both did tech things. I asked him what he worked on and he said “well back in the day I helped build ENIAC.” I was blown away. Had a great talk.

These are the moments in life to cherish. As Ferris Bueller once said "Life moves fast, if you don't stop to look around once in a while, you might miss it".

Incidentally, one of the scariest things about the volatility in the housing market and in my (lack of) career, is that I may at some point be forced to abandon the neighborhood and city in which I've adopted as my home and in which I've befriended many of these random delightful people of all ages, and they might have to too. They're my community, I see them at the gym, the coffee shop, walking down the street, or at the park. A 1 bedroom condo starts at around $650k CAD, and most of the people here who haven't already owned something for a while depend on renting basements.

Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#482

Post by mdhb »

internetter wrote: post #313
mdhb wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you actually used Siri? They are absolutely garbage at anything even remotely resembling the basics of AI/LLM related after spending a decade on it.

Obviously, they haven't invested any money into it (well, apparently they will for iOS 17). When Apple does invest money, however, which they seem to be doing now, there are usually impressive results. Take the M1, for instance.

Im not debating the mechanics of why it’s so shit, I’m saying that they are many years behind everyone else and that it’s not obvious that simply throwing money at the problem is going to fix that for them or that they actually have much of a track record of making good software again despite unlimited budgets and many years of opportunity to prove otherwise.

Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#483

Post by wolverine876 »

tr_user wrote: post #480
wolverine876 wrote: post #474

I hope it's not an overreaction to the current reactionary anti-ESG trend. We do need electric cars; they are the future.

Future of what? Reliable mass public transport is the best option for a sustainable future. We don't need car centric suburbia but with heavier and more expensive cars.

> Reliable mass public transport is the best option

I agree, but I don't think that's actually going to replace cars and it doesn't serve everyone, such as the people who live far outside cities.

Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#484

Post by mtlmtlmtlmtl »

derefr wrote: post #464
mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, you're right. I could've sworn I remember the ipod touch being first. Now I'm wondering why it existed it all.

Because parents didn't want to buy an entire flagship smartphone just for their 6yo to listen to music on the schoolbus. But they were okay with buying them an iPod. iPods were just mid-tier consumer-electronics expensive; which, back in ~2005, was nowhere near entry-level smartphone expensive, let alone flagship smartphone expensive. Then, after the iPhone started getting rev after rev, Apple's "lean manufacturing"…

Interesting, thanks for the history lesson. /g

Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#485

Post by ethbr1 »

MBCook wrote: post #59
eli wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, that was what a lot of people thought about Apple making a cell phone. That they'd never compete with Nokia or Motorola and that US carriers would never give them enough control.

The phone made sense to me because by that point Apple had clearly proven themselves as a consumer electronics company. It’s wasn’t as big a jump and cell phone software was largely junk. The carrier thing was true, but they could have launched outside the US. Instead they found a carrier desperate enough. But they’ve never done safety critical stuff like a car. Of highly mechanical stuff like a car. Or things that n…

> And really I’m not sure how much they could add a special “Apple touch” outside infotainment/interior controls compared to luxury automakers.

The right time was between 2010 (iPad launch) and 2014 (CarPlay launch), with a complete infotainment-only product.

Essentially, mimic the iPhone-on-one-carrier bargain.

Go to a struggling automaker (Fiat Chrysler?) and say "What if we told you that you won't have to worry about any of your infotainment solutions? We'll build the unit, in exchange for owning the exclusive app store it uses. And you'll get to say your cars are powered by Apple." Win/win.

Instead, they dicked around until the automakers figured their consoles out (mostly... still looking at you angrily, Nissan) and Apple was left without a key differentiator.

Hell, the mind-numbingly obvious reason for Apple -- do it at a loss for the real-time mapping and traffic data!!

Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#486

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

MetaWhirledPeas wrote: post #458
MBCook wrote: post #19

I was always rather puzzled by the car. I can’t see them ever competing even with the small makers like Jaguar or Polestar or Lamborghini. They’re certainly not going to take on Ford or Mazda or Honda. The idea of making the infotainment guts is interesting but I can’t see any carmaker giving up that much control. If they don’t like CarPlay they’d never like full Apple infotainment. Sure Apple could do ADAS stuff, bu…

> I was always rather puzzled by the car. I can’t see them ever competing even with the small makers like Jaguar or Polestar or Lamborghini. They’re certainly not going to take on Ford or Mazda or Honda. Why were you puzzled? What is so impossible about making a car from scratch, then making money on it? I don't own any Apple products, but I know they could do it. Yes it's difficult, but a lot of the difficulty comes…

Because just being able to do it isn't the point. The real question is whether or not it's a good use of the cash they have available. OP is saying that it doesn't make good business sense for Apple to do this, not that it's impossible for them to pull it off.

Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#487

Post by tumult »

tr_user wrote: post #480
wolverine876 wrote: post #474

I hope it's not an overreaction to the current reactionary anti-ESG trend. We do need electric cars; they are the future.

Future of what? Reliable mass public transport is the best option for a sustainable future. We don't need car centric suburbia but with heavier and more expensive cars.

Even if the US and other car-centric countries started a serious effort on that today, it would take decades. During which people continue to use gasoline cars, and emitting more CO2 we will need to undo in the future. Electric cars make sense right now regardless of your perspective on trains (I like trains, and dislike cars, and I am sympathetic)

Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#488

Post by dr_dshiv »

MBCook wrote: post #59
eli wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, that was what a lot of people thought about Apple making a cell phone. That they'd never compete with Nokia or Motorola and that US carriers would never give them enough control.

The phone made sense to me because by that point Apple had clearly proven themselves as a consumer electronics company. It’s wasn’t as big a jump and cell phone software was largely junk. The carrier thing was true, but they could have launched outside the US. Instead they found a carrier desperate enough. But they’ve never done safety critical stuff like a car. Of highly mechanical stuff like a car. Or things that n…

I saw Huawei cars being sold in Huawei stores in China. (Huawei stores are like Apple Stores). They were incredibly normal, beautiful cars. In contrast, Apple would have to make a gamechanger. Too big of a risk?

Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#489

Post by not2b »

tumult wrote: post #487
tr_user wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Future of what? Reliable mass public transport is the best option for a sustainable future. We don't need car centric suburbia but with heavier and more expensive cars.

Even if the US and other car-centric countries started a serious effort on that today, it would take decades. During which people continue to use gasoline cars, and emitting more CO2 we will need to undo in the future. Electric cars make sense right now regardless of your perspective on trains (I like trains, and dislike cars, and I am sympathetic)

Electric cars make sense. Having Apple build electric cars, when they've never built anything like that before? That's far less clear.

Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#490

Post by evan_ »

If I were running a successful company I would stay as far away from selling cars as possible- it can't imagine how bad it is for PR (not to mention your psyche) to suddenly have "Family killed by drunk driver" headlines with a giant color picture of your flagship product, blood-stained and mangled below it.
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