The Apple Watch hasn’t even shipped to consumers yet and there’s been plenty of talk about Apple’s next potential entry into a new product category with the rumored Apple car on everyone’s mind. We discussed Apple’s car project in depth on this week’s 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast and profiled the experts actually working on Apple’s car project earlier today.
So with all of this car talk out of Cupertino, what do you think? Should Apple invest in such a wildly different product category as an electric car would be or do you think Apple might be stretching itself too thin and should stick to improving the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and other products? Read on to catch up on the car story development and let us know what you think.
Earlier this month, minivans equipped with cameras leased by Apple started showing up in multiple cities potentially pointing to a Google Maps Street View feature for Apple Maps in the future. Shortly after that, though, an anonymous tip by someone claiming to work for Apple told Business Insider that Apple had a project that would “give Tesla a run for its money.†This followed a report that Apple and Tesla were waging an employee poaching war against each other.
The scope of the potential Apple car project became more when it was reported that Apple had a secret research lab where employees were actively researching automotive technology as the company hired the former head of research and development for Mercedes-Benz.
The Wall Street Journal later reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook had approved the car project with a staff of up to 1,000 people. Reuters added that Apple’s potential car would indeed feature autonomous driving functionality.
With Apple’s car project starting to take shape, we described the current electric car market and how Apple could make a dent in the product category, and the evidence that Apple is at least heavily investigating the product category for potentially building an electric car sometime in the future has stopped coming.
Our latest report profiling the experts actually working on the automobile project illustrates Apple’s intent to potentially enter the electric car market, not just develop car-integrated features like CarPlay.
After being the computer company known for making the Macintosh for decades, Apple reestablished itself with the iPod music player 15 years ago. The iPhone debuted in 2007 and has become the company’s driving force. The iPad defined the tablet category in 2010 and the Apple Watch will attempt to do the same for wearables in a few short weeks. Should the car be on the roadmap?
Let us know what you think in the poll below and tell us why in the comments.
Opinion: What we can expect from an Apple Car if it really goes on sale in 2020
Opinion: Five reasons why Apple Car is happening, and five big issues to consider
They just see Tesla, think that they personally kind of “like†Teslas cars, and make this stupid extrapolation that therefore this is all Apple needs to do is copy Tesla. It shows an astounding lack of imagination in my view.
It’s kind of like saying that Apple should have made a tablet like Microsofts failed crappy tablets, or a cell phone like Blackberry’s failed crappy phones. Instead Apple did what real designers do, which is re-imagine the entire concept of what a tablet or a cellphone is.
Let’s hope they do the same for a car and *don’t* come out with something like Tesla’s car, but instead come up with an entirely new approach.
I don’t actually care so much whether Apple gets into the car business, but I do care that they keep growing their earnings at a good pace, and there aren’t *that* many single product categories that can really move that needle. Cars are one, and they are one where technological innovation seems poised to make important differences in the coming few years. Tesla seems well-positioned for those changes, and so if Apple’s study of the matter indicates that buying Tesla is the most effective option, why not? (That said, I’m not sure Tesla can be bought at this point.) Otherwise, Apple can go it alone, or it can buy a couple of smaller players to build on, but I suspect either of those options will add years to product deployment.
I’m guessing at this point that last years rumors of Apple trying to buy Tesla weren’t that off, and that talks went nowhere. So now Apple might go it alone.
(The other industry I think Apple could have a chance with is financial services. Apple Pay is fairly small potatoes for now, but if they could grow it enough to make it essential to partners, and then back it will an “Apple Bank†(™-infringement) they could add a bank-sized business to their line.)
There are reasons to buy other companies and of course one is for the talent, but as Apple has said, they don’t need to buy any company, as they could do it themselves. They can simply hire talent, or get people from car companies which want to work at Apple, as they have been doing. Why in the world would you buy a company, if their vision isn’t near your own, or if you think they aren’t doing it right? Get the talent, and build it the Apple way.
The biggest problem with electric cars is range, charging time and charging locations. Getting charging stations is going to take a long time to really get going, and then charging time. If we can go from an depleted battery to fully charged in the same time it takes to fill a large tank of gas, then they might have a chance, but that’s a long way off from achieving quick charging time. Then there is the range of the vehicle. As it stands now, you can’t go more than about an hour or two or so away from your home without starting to worry if you are going to make it back home without having to go somewhere to charge the battery long enough to drive home.
Electric motors is probably the easiest part, since they are pretty simple designs vs a combustion engine. The transmission is easy, it’s more of the chassis, battery technology and then being able to have really nice interior.
After seeing that new Mercedes Benz concept car they showed at CES, I’d be worried about what Mercedes is working on, they seem like they are pushing the envelop in many ways.
Maybe Apple finally figures out where to add a fifth wheel to an automobile. :-)
And maybe use a large ipad as the steering wheel.
The third wheel was the driving wheel and had the motor *inside* the wheel so there was no loss of energy due to the linkage that’s usually required. The power wheel was also a “flywheel†though, so that whenever you were going downhill, the flywheel was free and the car was charging, and whenever you were going uphill, you used the battery and the stored energy.
There have been reams and reams of innovations and interesting ideas in electric vehicles over the decades people have been trying to make them mainstream. People who think Tesla is something “new†or “innovative†rub me the wrong way for that reason. Literally nothing Tesla is doing (design-wise) is really new at all.
There are like a half dozen after-market alternatives you can buy that do exactly what you want (battery cases), and they are comparatively cheap.
No, they should produce patented parts which are so outstanding they become standard inclusions in tomorrow’s electric vehicles… Like Bosch does.
It’s a huge money spinner, and there’s no need for them to become the new Tesla, when they can produce refined core technologies and sell them to existing auto makers.
Still, I think it makes more sense for Apple to develop something that is part of the car of tomorrow, not the whole car itself. Perhaps partnering with a car company? BMW has always had a fondness for Apple, maybe they will partner to make the self driving Bimmer? I trust BMW’s mechanicals much more than electronics, and Apple’s got the electronics and software skills. Maybe that makes sense?
They are experts at the supply chain. I very much see them farming out 100% of the manufacturing, just like they and the rest of the industry does with almost everything else these days.
Not sure why anyone wouldn’t trust Apple to do cars right too.
And they’ll bring that same mindset / expertise to the Apple Car, or whatever major automotive project they have in the works.
http://www.aboveavalon.com/notes/2015/2/14/apple-wants-to-design-a-car-as-ambition-knows-no-bounds
“For the want of a nail the shoe was lost,
For the want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For the want of a horse the rider was lost,
For the want of a rider the battle was lost,
For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail.†â€" Benjamin Franklin
We all know that Apple has more cash on hand than another other company in the world. However, this luxury doesn’t motivate them to hire more talented people so that they can continue to excel at all of their endeavours. Mac Mini update anyone? TV hobby anyone?
If they are going to continue to innovate in all of their other categories, then go on make a car. Although, I’m afraid that their future will more closely resemble Franklin’s words.
The origin goes back to the 1300’s, but the first time it took the form above was actually in Richard the 3rd’s time (around 1485 after the Battle of Bosworth).
Somehow I don’t think the guys working on this car project are the same guys who squash Yosemite bugs.
About the only thing we know vis a vis cars and Apple designers, is that Marc Newson designed one recently, and Jony Ive loves it. We also know that Ive drives a Bentley which he specifically likes because of the shape of the front end, and that the front end of the Bentley looks almost identical to Newson’s car design.
To me, Newson’s design is an ugly POS that I wouldn’t be caught dead in, so the fact that the two top designers at Apple think that a “good looking car†looks like a box with rounded corners is a bit frightening to me. I’ve always thought that if you design a car and it doesn’t look aerodynamic, you’ve made a mistake.
For all the people saying Apple designed the iPhone, they actually designed the iPad first. It’s out of work on the iPad that the iPhone came into being.
With the shit roll out of CarPlay they need to focus on it first before moving to a car. HealthKit and Homekkt have also had very slow roll outs. Apple needs to focus on their current platforms, the. After they do that they can do some restructuring after they finish the Spaceship.
Unless… they’re going for a non-conventional vehicle for (sub)urban use. This would make much more sense, given their mentality. I mean… cars… most people commute alone or in twos. And for that you lob around 1.5 tonne of steel etc and you occupy 7-8sqm of road surface, plus safety distances.
I’d be very happy (and NOT surprised at all) if it turns out Apple is looking into alternative means of transportation, like the Hiriko or some Toyota 3 wheelers we’ve seen recently.
They need to create an additional revenue stream. The iPhone and iPad markets are only so big.
Creating a car will put Apple in a market that they don’t have a part of. Nothing but revenue. How else is apple supposed to grow?
If anything, I think CarPlay was an experiment or a realization, or both, that they can’t give software to everyone, to put in their hardware, because it just doesn’t work right. It doesn’t feel right, and you can’t change the driving experience much with that. Maybe they realized they needed to build a car to change the experience.
Not many I bet. If Android made you a happier person, you wouldn’t come here looking for a fight.
And, apparently, enjoy spending their time on Apple centric sites trolling.
Seriously, show me one that supports your THEORY.
My main issue with Apple making a car is the branding. Apple Car? iCar? doesn’t fit. I think if Apple made a sub-brand for their Automotive division that would be better. Most car companies/names/models have a “masculine, aggressive†name. (M4, RS5, Aventador, SLS AMG etc) Apple car with a little fruit logo on the car would look really…not cool lol. Just my 2 cents.
Advertising- It’s OK to have ads on a device, but on my car? No thanks.
Cost- Apple used to make affordable and powerful products until the middle of the 90s. Now they serve a high end niche market. I don’t think that this nor the Watch will be successful unless a marketable price point is reached.
Production- Apple has the capital to pull this off but going from 0 to producing large amount of cars is insane.
Distribution- Where would you buy one of these? Expanding into distribution is a moon shot as well.
I think this is an unrealistic rumor.
Disruptors like Apple enter mature markets that are transition. Can you think of a more mature market then the automobile? The transition? Whether you like or not, the oil powered, human controlled cars are not the future. Software/computer controlled electric powered vehicles are. Yes the same software Apple is so good at. Laws and regulations allowing self-driving vehicles cars are being drafted both for the road and the air. It will be a few years before it’s all legal, and maybe even required. What would you think today (2015) of a pilot who insisted on flying by hand and refused to engage an airplane auto pilot? Would you fly an airline that advertised: “Our planes don’t have auto pilot systems� There will be a few early attempts and then Apple will be ready with a solution that in some ways, goes beyond what everyone has already attempted. I think we have seen that movie a few times now. If it’s an area where consumers interact with a software controlled device, I think Apple as a play and I can see a transportation vehicle that fits that category in the future. Will be interesting to watch.
The technology is there, I really think that the regular auto makers have missed the mark. Of all the electric cars made by auto manufactures the best is the Nissan Leaf?
How can Tesla be so good and the rest of the auto makers can’t come close? Yes some of it is price, the Telsa is $100,000 while the others are in the 30,000 to $70,000 range.
Frankly look at the Cadillac electric car, just like the volt it’s a joke.
Apple can be just like Tesla and shake things up and force everyone to be better.
So, I don’t know if it’s really price thats stopping the competition from getting their act together.
Will Apple be the next Samsung?