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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

#871

Post by amenghra »

steelframe wrote: post #782

After having gone through decades of adopting the "latest and greatest" tech, I've gotten to the point where what I really want is the least-complex thing I can find that does the essential job I want done. For a computer, I want something with SeaBIOS, a stripped-down kernel, and a handful of packages from the Debian Stable repository. I want it hackable and repairable -- something like a Framework. Nothing like a M…

> I might be running counter to hacker culture

Isn't hacker culture about being able to hack and repair things? I.e. you aren't running counter to hacker culture. You might be running against the mainstream, but that's all right.

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

#872

Post by Beijinger »

k12sosse wrote: post #812
steelframe wrote: post #782

After having gone through decades of adopting the "latest and greatest" tech, I've gotten to the point where what I really want is the least-complex thing I can find that does the essential job I want done. For a computer, I want something with SeaBIOS, a stripped-down kernel, and a handful of packages from the Debian Stable repository. I want it hackable and repairable -- something like a Framework. Nothing like a M…

I want physical knobs and buttons to do everything the touch screen does.

You want a Grenadier. But the price :-(

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

#873

Post by rldjbpin »

maybe they realized that handing over the sales to private dealerships, which they HAVE to do in their biggest market, would not be worth all the hassle with the development.

i am aware that they have/had "authorized resellers" in Asian countries before their physical presence in that region.

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

#874

Post by tarsinge »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #721
spiderice wrote: post #665

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But they’ve never done safety critical stuff like a car. Of highly mechanical stuff like a car. Or things that need something of a dealer network the way a car does And SpaceX had never launched a rocket into space, until they had. I don’t get this idea of a company like Apple not being able to get into a space, when tiny startups get into spaces all the time. Nobody expected Tesla to take on Ford either, but here…

Hmm I don’t think the SpaceX metaphor works super well here. One is an established tech company trying to do business in a space it’s unfamiliar with. It has existing forces pulling it in a certain direction because it already makes money in those ways. Google is the perfect example of how this hampers innovation. It’s one of the reasons the concept of Alphabet exists. SpaceX has one singular purpose. It’s not like i…

> SpaceX has one singular purpose. It’s not like it was trying to counterbalance its burgeoning space business with existing cost and profit centers that are not even tangentially related to its primary goal

Apple used to be organized differently than other big companies, and more like multiple startups. Just look at the trajectory of other PC builders of the 90’s.

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

#875

Post by sumedh »

Lio wrote: post #870
MBCook wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

Steve Jobs said that Motorola were calling the shots which is why Apple decided to do its own phone.

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

#876

Post by ivanbozic »

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #168

To be honest, I'm not sure what Apple could've brought to the table in regards to making an electric car. Apple's hardware design philosophies[1] don't really align with what consumers want in a car. Apple being less minimalistic than a Tesla — which is already at an extreme — is a hard sell. [1] Examples of what I mean: - Cars use faux materials all the time for cost and weight purposes, or even just looks (i.e. fak…

I agree with your points, but wanted to point out that the most recent iMac lineup is a bit fun and whimsy! It comes in seven different colors, and while metal it does give off a little bit of that iMac G3 feeling.

Jony Ive left Apple in 2019, but I think we're still in his era of design philosophy, will be interesting to see where Apple evolves in terms of hardware design over the next 10 to 20 years.

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

#877

Post by lencastre »

nah ja... this is a tad sad.

I was really wanting to drive a car that would unapolagetically don't care about any preconcieved ideas of what a car is and what it should have. The car's most well desigend engine would know where to park and ...

it's tiresome, $AAPL is going after the wrong horse. I'm sure they could pull making the ideal smartiCarAppleOS (tm c R), but as a v1 it would be a tremendous risk to embark in actual full car manufacturing. I mean, given the size of their warchest they could maybe afford a $TSLA or 3, or a smaller car maker and try tp Sink Diffrent (tm) upendding market dynamics of distribution, maintenance usw.

I'm going all over the place to boil down the following, Apple should likely double down on ar/vr/?R and leave something that is up to 2 ton metal heavy to the existing car industry.

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

#878

Post by jeffrallen »

wodenokoto wrote: post #867
dimator wrote: post #861

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They are a few on the road in Switzerland. I see one once a week or so.

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

#879

Post by pasabagi »

glitchinc wrote: post #836
steelframe wrote: post #782

After having gone through decades of adopting the "latest and greatest" tech, I've gotten to the point where what I really want is the least-complex thing I can find that does the essential job I want done. For a computer, I want something with SeaBIOS, a stripped-down kernel, and a handful of packages from the Debian Stable repository. I want it hackable and repairable -- something like a Framework. Nothing like a M…

I could not agree with you more. All electronics fail, and all systems reliant on electronics fail. Not all worm gears fail. As someone who has worked in tech my whole life, and who currently runs a technology-centric company, I generally detest the state of technology these days. I have reached a point in my life where I consciously limit my use of technology, and make it a point to steer clear of purchasing and mak…

> All electronics fail, and all systems reliant on electronics fail. Not all worm gears fail.

This is kind of a weird take: I was reading about the Therac 25 (radiation therapy machine that killed a few people because of software bugs), and one of the reasons why they were so confident it was going to work is that software isn't vulnerable to two classes of 'bugs' that analog devices suffer from: wear, and manufacturing defects.

I mean, they turned out to be wrong, but they have a point: physical devices are subject to entire categories of bugs that software can be reliably proofed against. All worm screws will ultimately fail, while software can (if done correctly) run forever. All manufactured devices are unique and have unique defects. Software can be reproduced without any defects whatsoever.

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

#880

Post by ak_111 »

There must be some incredibly interesting internal documents in Tim Cook's email archive discussing the business, product and financial strategy of this whole project.

We can only hope that one day it leaks or we get some glimpse on how this vision evolved. It would be particularly interesting to see the inception and early days of this project and if it ever overlapped with the Jobs era.

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