Even if Apple wants to introduce some innovative bits and pieces, reliability out of the gate is critical to Apple's success as an auto designer - no doubt the making part would be contracted out. As such it needs to take care to not introduce a system that it isn't certain it can deliver trouble-free. If 900 cars roll off the line with everything working flawlessly for a long time but 100 cars have issues in abundance, that's a fail. No one will talk about the 900 examples that are doing fine. The focus - justifiably - will be on those 100 cars with issues.
Ease into innovations, introducing them fully realised as something that can be reliably reproduced in volume.
Of course Apple wants to be seen as a game-changing entrant but at the same time if that's a game-changing entrant that can't consistently deliver a reliable device, that's simply not going to cut it. If that's the way this is going, my recommendation is to stop right now and avoid a full-on disaster. Many of us love our gadgets but when it comes to cars, reliability is crucial. Moreover it has to be reliability evident over a long period of time, not just through the initial warranty period.
It comes down to balancing innovation with delivering viable product consistently. It might mean not going all-in on the innovation front but you need to know when not to do something.
Uh. That's kind of Apple's thing. Innovating, but with rigorous quality control. Not always first with every feature, but first to make it work right.
Apple has never done anything like a vehicle that is a far, far more complex product than Apple has experience with. It's one thing to swing for the fences with a smart phone, a tablet, a laptop, etc. but with all the systems needed to do a complete vehicle, it's a whole other thing. Of course, just because Apple is working on various concepts does not mean they will all wind up in the launch vehicle. Consider that if doing a laptop keyboard or maybe a cellphone antenna system can go poorly, the potential for ending up with complications is exponentially greater with a ground-breaking tech-laden vehicle. It's a balancing act. Innovate, certainly, but do it with extreme caution because if your product impresses initially yet drives owners crazy, you're going to fail in the automotive industry. There are too many established automakers with highly evolved tech in play for Apple, as a newcomer, to think it will be given a pass if its product isn't quite ready for prime time.
If Apple really is trying to develop a complete vehicle, it's a huge gamble. If this is about developing assorted systems to offer up to established automakers, that's less daunting. It's going to be quite interesting to see where this goes over the long haul.
"PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in."
I'd be more tempted to leave the bumpers out all the time while parked so that nobody parks me in. Then retract the bumpers while exiting the parking space for maximum manoeuvrability.
Also, bear in mind that Apple's usual approach is to make a minimum viable product that works as well as possible for version 1, then expand the feature set as part of its refinement process. If there were any doubt at all about the reliability of the retractable bumpers then that feature would not make it into a shipping product.
Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing - hence the laptop keyboards that Apple felt were foolproof, saw data showing a very small but still unacceptable percentage of failures after shipping [x] million of them, and are still being redesigned to mitigate the issue.
I invite Apple to bring a prototype here for cold-weather testing (Siberian flyover country).
If they can make it work at -20F with heavy slush frozen under the vehicle, I'll applaud them.
In Minnesota we get minus 20F in January and February often enough for it not to be much of an issue. All the cars start (at least the ones with 5-30 or 0-30 oil in the crankcase), all the buses and light rail run, nobody is found frozen in place at the bus stop, the kids play hockey and skate outside. And our roads are plowed early and often (the taxes ought to buy something). But the line for the carwash might be an hour or so—ProTip: use the bathroom before you get in line.
When someone parks an Apple Car with retractable/extensible bumpers, you can be sure they will be extended to take up space rather than retracted to give other people space. I can see notes on people's cars to the effect, "Drivers who extend their bumpers when parked are a cancer on society." I can even see the term "Park rage" getting coined. Or maybe "Park Snark."
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Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing - hence the laptop keyboards that Apple felt were foolproof, saw data showing a very small but still unacceptable percentage of failures after shipping [x] million of them, and are still being redesigned to mitigate the issue.