New hires at Apple suggest work on prototyping 'Apple Car' parts
Apple has picked up two more workers from the auto industry, both of whom are now believed to be at the company's "Product Realization Lab," where prototype hardware is developed.
Tesla's Model 3.
One of these is David Masiukiewicz, formerly a senior CNC programmer for R&D hardware prototyping at Tesla. The other is Kevin Harvey, who was a CNC machine shop supervisor at Andretti Autosport, known for its role in professional racing leagues like IndyCar and Global Rallycross. The hires were spotted by 9to5Mac.
Masiukiewicz exited Tesla in March and began at Apple earlier this month. His LinkedIn profile describes him as a "senior model maker" at the Product Realization Lab, without going into detail about what he might be creating.
Harvey actually joined Apple as a model maker in August, but his position wasn't noticed until Friday.
The pair are presumably among a number of people working on components for Apple's electric car, rumored to launch in 2019 or 2020. Masiukiewicz has experience in machining chassis, suspension, and powertrain parts, which might imply that Apple is working towards full-scale prototype vehicles, or at least taking major parts beyond the concept phase.
Apple regularly poaches employees from Tesla, and vice versa. Earlier this week it was reported that Apple picked up Chris Porritt, Tesla's former VP of Vehicle Engineering.
Tesla's Model 3.
One of these is David Masiukiewicz, formerly a senior CNC programmer for R&D hardware prototyping at Tesla. The other is Kevin Harvey, who was a CNC machine shop supervisor at Andretti Autosport, known for its role in professional racing leagues like IndyCar and Global Rallycross. The hires were spotted by 9to5Mac.
Masiukiewicz exited Tesla in March and began at Apple earlier this month. His LinkedIn profile describes him as a "senior model maker" at the Product Realization Lab, without going into detail about what he might be creating.
Harvey actually joined Apple as a model maker in August, but his position wasn't noticed until Friday.
The pair are presumably among a number of people working on components for Apple's electric car, rumored to launch in 2019 or 2020. Masiukiewicz has experience in machining chassis, suspension, and powertrain parts, which might imply that Apple is working towards full-scale prototype vehicles, or at least taking major parts beyond the concept phase.
Apple regularly poaches employees from Tesla, and vice versa. Earlier this week it was reported that Apple picked up Chris Porritt, Tesla's former VP of Vehicle Engineering.
Comments
I think this car has been a long time coming.
I expect something like this.
Do you need to get it from the original manufacturer, or does "Joe's Auto Shop" down the road have people, equipment, and parts to service these next-generation cars? Does this imply that Apple will need to create a set of Apple Auto Service Stations across all the geographies where they sell cars?
Service is another big reason I'm worried about the Apple Car. Not only is designing and building a car so far out of Apple's core competencies, but they're going to have to find a way to bring their level of service to car repair. It's not like carrying a laptop down to the Apple Store or FedExing it to Apple for repair. Charging is a huge issue too. Hopefully they will adopt Tesla's charging system and further build it out. The last thing we need is another way to charge electric vehicles. I'm very skeptical that this will go well for Apple. They've got over 200 billion dollars burning a hole in their pocket and I can easily see them blowing through that (and a whole lot more) in no time trying to break into the car business.
Amost all parts that can (and do) break down with your ICE car are non existent or show reduced wear and tear.
Batteries are guaranteed by the manufacturer (8 to 10 years or so) and serviced at your home or you get a replacement car until it's repaired.
Other fixes are OTA (in Tesla's case) and are completely hassle free.
Try to get rid of the ICE mindset of repairs, oil, money, petrol, repairs, oil, visits to Joe's Auto Shop, breakdowns, repairs, money, oil, petrol station (again), etc. etc.
Service is another big reason I'm worried about the Apple Car. Not only is designing and building a car so far out of Apple's core competencies, but they're going to have to find a way to bring their level of service to car repair. It's not like carrying a laptop down to the Apple Store or FedExing it to Apple for repair. Charging is a huge issue too. Hopefully they will adopt Tesla's charging system and further build it out. The last thing we need is another way to charge electric vehicles. I'm very skeptical that this will go well for Apple. They've got over 200 billion dollars burning a hole in their pocket and I can easily see them blowing through that (and a whole lot more) in no time trying to break into the car business.
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Electric vehicles are actually simpler than ICE vehicles, all things being equal (like autonomous driving and other advanced systems). Service is simpler too, and less frequent. It won't cost Apple any of the existing cash they have in the books as the entire R&D and build out should be able to be financed via ongoing cash flows from exiting business lines. They would surely adopt the Tesla charging standards, which are not really Tesla's; they are standards that even Tesla adopted. And I could see Apple building out in the self-driving car-sharing model, where they would own and service the vehicles, sprinkling service/charging/clean&prep depots in and around the urban markets the fleets of cars would serve. There are many ways forward with vehicle technology and the future of transportation, and a few very large budding segments, like autonomous driving and car-sharing, corporate fleets, special use vehicles, etc. plenty of room for many players, of which Apple will likely be one and be very successful.
http://insideevs.com/tesla-model-s-makes-use-skf-ceramic-motor-bearings-video/
The likes of Uber has shown a large demand for service vehicles and there's a cost breakdown here:
http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-customer-cost-breakdown-morgan-stanley-2015-2
With a driverless car, the fare can cut in half straight away or pad out the margins while still massively undercutting the competition. Fuel cost is a lot lower with electricity, at least 1/5th and maintenance should be lower, it would be around $0.58 per mile vs $1.50 for Uber.
Ideally the car would pay for itself after a reasonable mileage like under 50,000 miles. Net profit per mile would have to be ~$0.40 per mile to pay for a car that cost $20k to build and it could make this in the first year. Then it's $20k profit per year. This would be equivalent to about the profit of 100 iPhones per vehicle so 100 cars in 10,000 cities = 100 million iPhones per year. 1 million cars is what it takes to even get anywhere near the money they make with the iPhone, Uber has 1 million drivers. These would be city vehicles and cities can mandate that only driverless vehicles are allowed. They could have designs more like the following, although this one has rear wheels going round the doors, which isn't practical:
These would be low speed (~20mph) so designing for impact protection wouldn't be a priority, it would be much like a bus. They would be low enough cost to potentially replace buses and it helps the elderly and disabled as it comes right to the door. It would help when people are out drinking and need to get home safely, no overcharging, no chance of assault of either the driver or passenger.
20mph x 12 hour operation = 240 mile range per day so they just get charged every day when they run out.
People would commute to the cities in other vehicles, leave them charging in a parking garage and take one of these pods into the city.
This is already being trialled in some countries:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/05/driverless-robot-taxis-to-be-tested-in-japanese-town
http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/a-driverless-taxi-called-snuber-is-picking-up-passengers-in-south-korea/
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2016-01/29/driverless-autonomous-cars-london
It could work for parcel deliveries, maybe groceries. The items can be stored in smart-locked containers and it drives to the doors and alerts the owner who unlocks their container with their phone and that unlock acts as a digital receipt of collection.
This is one of the primary issues with the Apple Car. They are late to the party. By the time Apple unveils its first vehicle, Tesla will likely have delivered the bulk of today's 400,000+ Model 3 reservations. They will have likely announced their next model (I'm putting my money on a light truck). They have already captured a huge amount of mindshare and I imagine a lot of those Model 3 reservations are people who would have been Apple customers. So, unless Apple takes a completely different approach (wouldn't be the first time) as others have suggested, something along the lines of transportation as a service, I don't see an Apple Car being a slam dunk. One thing is certain, the next few years will prove interesting!