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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

#861

Post by dimator »

wodenokoto wrote: post #811
andrewia wrote: post #267

I know somebody on the project. The cancellation makes sense, they were years from release and every new VP pivoted the project and lost progress. If they had committed to their original project (a bus) or the first revision (a very high-end car) they could have released on a timely schedule. But they're far too late to the game.

The original VW Bus reimagined in Apples design language would totally make me consider a bus.

that's kind of what we're getting soon: https://www.vw.com/en/models/id-buzz.html

it's no longer concept.

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

#862

Post by sgt »

dleslie wrote: post #757
jupp0r wrote: post #753

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imho Teslas feel very much like a car that Apple could have designed. Lots of aspects of the whole experience are fundamentally different than other cars. Maybe I'm not thinking radically enough, but then Jony Ive is pursuing other career options, too.

Teslas are the Alienware of automobiles. Flashy, ostentatious, and aimed at enthusiasts with more money than taste. Apple would likely have made something that evoked elegance. It would have contrasted with Tesla in the same way a Macbook contrasts with an Alienware.

Flashy? Ostentatious? I mean, regular people with no particular interest in speed or flashy interior/exterios also buy Tesla's. The Tesla 3 is pretty plain and just very functional - works great. I don't have one but I know several people with Teslas, they seem super happy with their vehicles.

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

#863

Post by exe34 »

jcgrillo wrote: post #155
cududa wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a really myopic observation. They're very very different. ChatGPT Pro helps me learn new concepts in new languages much much faster than I did in the past.

Who would that put out of business? Does that replace anyone's job function? It sounds like you're describing something like "really good search for Wikipedia" which to be clear I think is great, but who's gonna be replaced by that in their workplace? EDIT: actually, I overcommitted a little bit with "really good Wikipedia search". I can rely on Wikipedia search to not invent stuff from whole cloth and try to pass it…

Do you understand the concept of individual productivity? If you have 5 people working for you, and a new technology makes each 25% more productive, you can fire one of them.

The idea here is that it won't stop at 25%. Even if you were to accept this premise, maybe you're just thinking about chat gpt 3.5 or 4. But it really doesn't take a lot more imagination to think about what version 7 or 30 might do.

The same goes for the image/video generation models. Smaller production studios might forgo several artist hires and just generate the stuff they need. Large ones will have an enormous pool of unemployed creatives and won't have to pay them much at all.

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

#864

Post by coev »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #709
stephen_g wrote: post #695

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Hold it wrong” was an antenna issue on the iPhone 4, released in 2010 and discontinued more than 10 years ago in 2013. Might be time to move on from that one…

It’s also interesting to point that specific one out because it’s a somewhat widely held opinion that outside of that specific flaw that the iPhone 4 was one of the best industrial designs of the time. Everything else about the design was very iconic, long lasting, and influential to future generations of devices both inside and outside of Apple

Maybe the design was iconic but the all-glass design made it fragile as hell. I replaced six screens/backs in the year I had my 4 and I was really happy when they switched to aluminum backs in the 5.

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

#865

Post by staunton »

hulitu wrote: post #840
dagmx wrote: post #788

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people want (as you describe) the “least-complex thing I can find that does the essential job I want done” But what you then go on to describe is the antithesis of other people’s definitions. People want an experience that works out of the box. That they don’t have to think about package managers or maintenance. That’s low complexity for the vast majority of people. That’s why people are going for Apple and…

> People want an experience that works out of the box. I hear this since 30 years. Yet absolutely nothing works out of the box. Everything has a learning curve, sometimes only for the sake of change (see Windows, iOS, etc)

A lot of things work out of the box. Hairdryers. Cooking stoves. Fridges. Coffee machines.

It's just as soon as a company wants to make everything into a full-blown computer (to get that sweet data), that's when the problems start. The system becomes complex, feature creep and lack of engineering effort do the rest. Maybe not everything needs to be a computer.

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

#866

Post by fsloth »

microtherion wrote: post #632
ProfessorLayton wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a fun and whimsical one.

To me, it looks edgy for edginess' sake. In comparison, the Canoo vehicles look like they were actually designed with purpose.

AFAIK Cybertruck is edgy due to manufacturing constraints on the body?

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

#867

Post by wodenokoto »

dimator wrote: post #861
wodenokoto wrote: post #811

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original VW Bus reimagined in Apples design language would totally make me consider a bus.

that's kind of what we're getting soon: https://www.vw.com/en/models/id-buzz.html it's no longer concept.

Soon? I thought it was for sale. I'm pretty sure I saw a model _with_ price in Dubai show room.

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

#868

Post by Lio »

I_AM_A_SMURF wrote: post #859
Miserlou57 wrote: post #833

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t hate the Apple Watch, but I was pretty seriously disappointed at how it looked when it came out. Great! They made a watch look like my phone, cool

It's funny that of all things Apple's watches are square and Android watches are round. It feels like it should be the other way around.

I own (and prefer) a Garmin smartwatch but I actually think Apple got it right with the square screen.

A round display suits analogue watch faces but square is better for utility.

E.g. map reading or lots of data fields during exercise. Where you want more display given size of wrist real estate.

Ironically Garmin used to make a square screen Epix but switched to round.

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

#869

Post by fshbbdssbbgdd »

I_AM_A_SMURF wrote: post #859
Miserlou57 wrote: post #833

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t hate the Apple Watch, but I was pretty seriously disappointed at how it looked when it came out. Great! They made a watch look like my phone, cool

It's funny that of all things Apple's watches are square and Android watches are round. It feels like it should be the other way around.

Given the geometry of a wrist, you can comfortably fit a bigger usable display on a square watch face than a round one.

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

#870

Post by Lio »

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…

> The phone made sense to me because…

Only in hindsight. At the time Apple had tried once before with the Rockr, and it really sucked.

The iPhone launch was wonderful because it changed the game enough for a 2G phone to be an acceptable trade off in a 3G market.

It was not clear at all that would happen before the launch presentation.

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