Apple's playbook is seems very clear to me.
Fashionable utility.
They get this better than anyone. Cars would seem like such a logical next step in that regard.
Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars
141–150 of 174 posts
Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
No.
No? Could you explain? Did the old film cameras fall under consumer electronics? I don't think so. What about analog telephones from the 90's? What about overhead projectors and phonograph players (I hope that's what they were called)? Those devices have changed. I have to imagine the umbrella of 'consumer electronics' is constantly expanding. In the long term, why would cars be any different?
A car is still in a different device category. It has to be a lot more dependable and secure then a phone, with deeper social implications (life critical). Jobs managed to slip the antennagate under the rug, you can't do that with cars. IMHO this is not the kind of knowledge you can imprint in a company in a few years safely.
Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars
#143A couple months ago I was contacted by a recruiter from Apple on LinkedIn. He claimed my skillset was a great match for some new thing they were doing but wouldn't explain. I thought WTH, I'd been doing EVs for the last 6 years and non-EVs for longer than that. Maybe they need to get some official vague news out so they can actually hire the people they need?
Similar story here; they weren't recruiting but showed lots of interest in a certain device an eventually bought the thing, while we have no idea what on earth they are planning to do with it and they of course wouldn't tell.
So it seems that behind closed doors they are reseraching a lot of different areas, trying to figure out which one to explore/exploit. That sounds logical, Microsoft/Google/... do the same, but funnily enough I never looked at Apple that way - I always only saw the shiny end products. Must be their marketing.
Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, isn't it the other way around? I remember reading somewhere that Tesla poaches a good number of employees from Apple.
No, these are compatible statements. They both try to poach, and Tesla can be having more luck at it.
Why join a company where you have to work on fake projects for sometime before you are allowed to work on a real project, when you can join a company where such waste of time is not happening?
Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars
#145Apple hardware is generally beautiful and feels extremely well built, but usually makes a few key compromises of function for the sake of form, with the result that some of their gear is prone to failure after a surprisingly short period of time. Take pretty much every Apple cable ever made for example. They lack stress relief and, hence, tend to fall apart where they are stressed. Some of this can be blamed on Steve…
...be wary. Hell yes. This is a product that, with a hidden bug or quirk, will kill, maim or hurt you and others around you. On the other hand, Apple has the capital to do this correctly. Even if they later decide to limit the scope of the project, it will pay dividends with their existing automotive control group. A project like this will take many years. But, with their best project managers, there's no doubt that…
Some of my friends who develop for android say that API's and functionality can sometimes just get dropped from version to version especially in things the Nexus. Without warning. To the extent that there are threads with 100/1000's of developer woes going to deaf years wrt un-planned degradations/api changes/ and deprecations. Bugs/defects leading to phones getting bricked are also not un-common.
Apple api's and documentation and deprecation - are more deliberate. and gives me more confidence that i won't end up with a bricked phone.
tldr; i'd still trust an apple EV over a google/android one.
Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars
#146I find it more believable that these Apple car rumors are actually test mules for their CarPlay system and future extensions.
That's unlikely given the hires that they've been making. I know of a number of engineers working on drivetrains, motor controllers, etc. who've been hired into that group.
Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars
#147What if Volkswagen decided they wanted to do smart phones? And had recruiters call random people at Google, Samsung and Apple ... I cannot quite get my head around this - Apple is an excellent engineering, sales and design company with gigantic wealth - but the leap from computers and phones into automobile is very big. They have little in common wrt. sales, technology and support. Why would this work out? And does n…
They have several key advantages that apply to this space: 1) unparalleled industrial design credibility, 2) a limitless money hose. If they decide to do this, they do have the ability to make the hires they need to give it an honest shot.
Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars
#148I'm a little miffed that people don't express more skepticism about self-driving cars on tech sites. Given what I know about AI research and the technical limitations of LIDAR etc., I find it unlikely that fully self-driving cars will be available at any scale in our lifetimes — if at all. I wish people wouldn't talk about them like they're already de facto the future of transport. I think if Apple is working on a ca…
What would be the point of expressing more skepticism?
Like you, I'm very skeptical that we'll get self-driving cars any time soon, and somewhat skeptical that we'll get them in my lifetime. But what would be the point of expressing skepticism here?
I'm not investing my money on it, and I'd be annoyed if significant amounts of public money were being dolled out for it, but if Google and others want to spend a few billions investing on AI instead of funding a few yachts for their shareholders, I'm all for it. And like you pointed out, if anything self-driving cars will be held to an higher standard in terms of security, so I don't see a problem there either.
There was an article recently saying how people bought lottery tickets to justify dreaming big about their possibilities. If Google wants to pay for our ticket, I'm not complaining.
(By the way, I say this as a layman. If I was an expert on, say, LIDAR and I had a specific criticism that hadn't previously been raised, I'd speak about it.)
Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Toyota never dominated anything.
"Toyota was the largest automobile manufacturer in 2012 (by production) ahead of the Volkswagen Group and General Motors." [1] For example… "Introduced in 1966, the [Toyota] Corolla managed to become the best-selling car worldwide by 1974 and has been one of the best-selling cars in the world since then." [2] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Corolla
These facts do not imply that Toyota dominated the industry. Some car always must be the best-selling, right?
Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only domain expertise they had on phones was the itunes phone with motorola. And then they launched the iphone. Same goes for the ipod. Only thing they had expertise in was computers. And with computers becoming extremely important for cars, they might just have a chance. Just as much as google, and they don't have any particular domain knowledge either (ie. they have never sold a car before).
Computers aren't that important for cars. I'll gladly believe that Apple will produce a car with a completely amazing user experience for its center console. But I'll take a car with a less amazing user experience for its center console if it drives better, gets better mileage, has lower maintenance, costs tens of thousands of dollars less, and looks good on the outside. Apple has no expertise there, and it's a compl…
Certain segment of car owners pays lots of money for comfort, great design and great branding. Apple is certainly strong in those areas.
And who knows ,if it's not good enough in the rest that's needed, it can always cooperate.