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Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

reuters.com

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Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#451

Post by poulsbohemian »

afavour wrote: post #432
poulsbohemian wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RE: User experience - best card I’ve ever used. Integrates with my watch and phone in such a way that I don’t even have to pull it out to pay. Can dispute charges with a single text. Easy to see full details of spending and billing. The cash back pays for my monthly Apple One account too.

> Integrates with my watch and phone in such a way that I don’t even have to pull it out to pay. That’s contactless payment. Entirely possible without any Apple anything. A more cynical person might say that one of Apple’s strengths is marketing commoditised capabilities as something special.

>Entirely possible to without any Apple anything

Yes, I understand this, but if you are already part of the Apple ecosystem it's an excellent integration.

Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#452

Post by [deleted] »

daniellarusso wrote: post #292
abhinavsharma wrote: post #21

This is starting to make increasingly more sense even though Apple making a car seemed laughable a few years ago. Apple is fundamentally now a company that can move immense amounts of capital into new industries with the underlying ethos of user experience. Apple Card was perhaps a dipping of the toes moment. In theory, Tesla shouldn't be worth what it is because the tech behind it is increasingly getting commoditize…

Tesla has the patents. Every other manufacturer will be licensing Tesla’s IP, IMHO.

[deleted]

Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#453

Post by sib »

africanboy wrote: post #210
light_hue_1 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The biggest lesson from Tesla is that cars are not cellphones. Having one display off to the side, without buttons, that does everything is an awful experience in a car. This is both the most functional and most beautiful design choice I've ever experienced. My favorite part of my Model 3. You quickly come to realize that voice control does everything and that you should never have to reach for a button or fiddle w…

The thing is the car is not my butler. I shouldn't say to my car what I want the car to do, I should do it. Also, I listen to loud music when I drive. Imagine you are driving and the kids start activating car functions because it's fun. Thanks but no thanks.

You realize that with the drive-by-wire systems in (most) modern cars, when you press the accelerator, you are sending an electronic message that "asks" a computer to increase the speed of the car - there's no mechanical linkage from the pedal to a carburetor and/or fuel pump, right?

Similarly in many cases with windshield wipers, headlights, windows, temperature controls, etc.

Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#454

Post by ogre_codes »

thekyle wrote: post #379
kansface wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a small time Apple shareholder and have the opposite reaction. Apple is sitting on 300 billion in cash - I expect them to do something with it. They need to move into some other market because their existing ones are tapped out. Cars are a great fit: 1. Big enough market for an investment of 10s of billions 2. Its international (quit a bit of that money is stuck overseas) 3. Making electric cars isn't too hard (s…

> Apple is sitting on 300 billion in cash - I expect them to do something with it. Why can't they just pay it out to shareholders and let them figure out how to invest it?

They have been. Apple has returned over half a trillion dollars to shareholders over the past 6 years or so. They have pledged to be cashflow neutral going forward. They do still have a monster cash reserve, but they are also very good to shareholders at the same time.

Edit: corrected an order of magnitude error in figures! Thanks umeshunni

Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#455

Post by 0xEFF »

capableweb wrote: post #178
0xEFF wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm also not sure what Apple's edge here is. At this point all I really want out of an entertainment center is a screen for my phone to plug into. Apple has been doing CarPlay for years. If they do at least as well with the rest of the interior they’ll have an edge over most luxury cars today.

I don't think CarPlay is ahead what anyone else is doing, Android Auto works in reality much better than CarPlay, at least with my car. The UX of CarPlay makes much less sense, has less functionality and less safety features than Android Auto. And somehow CarPlay is also inverting the rolling control my car has, just like they do with the scrolling on touch pads.

Would a full-cabin CarPlay beat other luxury EV interfaces? I think that's the question. Auto manufacturers produce sub-par software interfaces. Is there a luxury EV that runs purely on android or produces a software interface as good as Apple's?

Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#456

Post by 01100011 »

abhinavsharma wrote: post #21

This is starting to make increasingly more sense even though Apple making a car seemed laughable a few years ago. Apple is fundamentally now a company that can move immense amounts of capital into new industries with the underlying ethos of user experience. Apple Card was perhaps a dipping of the toes moment. In theory, Tesla shouldn't be worth what it is because the tech behind it is increasingly getting commoditize…

This comment implicitly rests on the fallacy, learned the hard way by Tesla, that making electric vehicles is just like making any other electronic thing.

When is the last time an electronic mfg had to deal with a billion dollar lawsuit because they didn't follow industry best practices for design like Toyota did after the acceleration scandal? Does Apple have experience with the NHTSB or other relevant regulatory agencies? Sure, there is a lot of gatekeeping in the auto industry, but it's for good reason. Cars can and do regularly kill people. It is not the same as making an iPhone.

Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#457

Post by gamblor956 »

ajross wrote: post #392
st1x7 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a company that is running mostly on brand status, Tesla is probably the easiest competitor for Apple to beat in this space. The real competition are the companies that have been building cars for decades.

> As a company that is running mostly on brand status They shipped like half a million cars this year! They own like 70-80% of every EV market they compete in. This is the kind of criticism you'd read about Tesla in 2014. The companies that "have been building cars for decades" are getting stomped by Tesla in this space, 12x more Model 3's were sold than LEAF's in the US last year. At some point the established wisdo…

Tesla's biggest threat isn't Apple. It's the other automakers making enough EVs that they don't need to purchase credits from Tesla anymore.

Tesla is profitable, but every single one of its quarterly profits is still the result of selling credits to other automakers, not from the sale of its cars. In that regard, Tesla joins such luminous counterparts as Fiat (1.4 million profit on accounting charge) and Hyundai ($140 million quarterly loss) as the only "major" automaker which doesn't make money selling vehicles.

Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#458

Post by sib »

cobookman wrote: post #155
SkyMarshal wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm really curious what Apple's differentiators will be. There's room for more than one car company like this. If Apple brings high quality, tight fit and finish, elegant design, software focus, vertical integration (including their new M1 processor tech), logistics support (charging station network, maintenance, etc), and "next-level batteries" to the mix, then I'm sure they'll find space in the market. If Apple ca…

An EV that just works that appeals to the luxury buyer. Tesla is still far from that. I've yet to meet a tesla owner who's car just "Works" without any issues or fiddling. GM's & Nissan's EVs fit that bucket. But they are designed as "buget" cars and dont evoke a desire from buyers to be excited about them on a day-to-day basis.

My interactions with Tesla service since acquiring my Model 3 in December 2018:

(1) Install rear spoiler (out of stock when car originally ordered - free service)

(2) Upgrade self-driving computer to version 3 (free service given the car had the FSD option)

(3) Rotate tires

All three were performed at my home, at my convenience, by a tech who just showed up and did his business without needing my attention.

Car and experience have been great - so good that my wife leased a Model 3 in 2019 and will be replacing it with a Model Y when the lease expires.

Re: Apple targets car production by 2024, eyes ‘next level’ battery tech: sources

#460

Post by xvector »

FireBeyond wrote: post #253
xvector wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and then didn't [resolve the problem] - how many iterations of the butterfly are we on now? Uh, the butterfly isn't used in Apple keyboards anymore. They reverted to the old scissor switch design some time ago.

After multiple generations of failure in "premium" laptops (of which I owned more than one), with barely any acknowledgement of any issue whatsoever.

The point is that you said the issue was unresolved when that’s clearly not the case.
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