Apple Car effort gains BMW electric car executive Ulrich Kranz

AppleInsider

Apple has reportedly hired a former senior executive of BMW's electric car division to bolster its own development of a self-driving "Apple Car."

Credit: AppleInsider

The Cupertino company "in recent weeks" hired Ulrich Kranz, who was the senior vice president of the BMW group that developed the i3 and i8 electric vehicles, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

Kranz spent 30 years working at BMW before co-founding self-driving vehicle company Canoo. He stepped down from his position as CEO of Canoo about a month before joining Apple.

The BMW executive represents one of Apple's more high-profile hires for its autonomous vehicle initiative. Kranz will report to Doug Field, who led development of the Tesla Model 3 before leaving to run Apple's "Project Titan" car division.

Apple kicked off development of an electric vehicle in 2014. Since then, "Project Titan" has suffered a number of setbacks and staff layoffs. In 2016, Apple shelved its plans for a production vehicle to work on underlying autonomous systems that it could license to other automakers.

Since then, Apple appears to have shifted focus back to actually producing a full-fledged vehicle. It has made a number of high-profile hires, including a Tesla executive who worked on powertrains and a Porsche employee in charge of chassis development.

Apple was said to be in talks with Hyundai and KIA on a partnership to produce the "Apple Car." Those talks fizzled out earlier in 2021.

In 2020, Apple shifted its car project under the oversight of John Giannandrea, the Cupertino tech giant's chief of artificial intelligence and machine learning. In recent months, however, Apple's car project has lost a number of key executives, including Benjamin Lyon, Jaime Waydo, and Dave Scott.

It isn't clear when an "Apple Car" might debut, but reports indicate that it could take at least five to seven years to ship.

Follow all of WWDC 2021 with comprehensive AppleInsider coverage of the week-long event from June 7 through June 11, including details on iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, macOS Monterey and more.

Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider," and you'll get the latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for "AppleInsider Daily" instead and you'll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you're interested in Apple-centric home automation, say "Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider," and you'll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.

tmay

This is a great hire.

Xed

I wonder if there are still people who believe that Apple isn't working on an automotive project.

lordjohnwhorfin

Apple *is* working on an automotive project that was announced at WWDC! Soon you'll be able to unlock your new car with your iPhone or Apple Watch.

lkrupp

So just a few days ago the tech blogs were on fire about Apple losing car executives and how the Apple iCar was dead. Now this.

genovelle

lkrupp said:

So just a few days ago the tech blogs were on fire about Apple losing car executives and how the Apple iCar was dead. Now this.

Right!  It makes you wonder if the left voluntarily or were asked to depart? Each major arrival tends to coincide with several exits. We don’t seem to get the info in real time so, it seems unrelated. 

cg27

Oh the irony, Craig Federighi was shown driving a little red 2 seat convertible in one of the WWDC segue clips, as in The Red Barchetta tune from his favorite band.  Check out the lyrics if you don’t understand.

Beats

If he worked on the i8 bring him on board!! People say Tesla has good designs but I think there’s better. The Cybertruck is good though. 

MacPro

I still think Apple is initially looking at vehicle rental and ride-sharing services with its EV. This hire seems to support that to some extent.

dk49

"It will take another 5 to 7 years to ship". I am afraid that's quite long, and if Apple finally launches the car in that time gap, it might be too late. Other car makers like Tesla would have evolved quite a lot. Even If Apple manages to release a Level 5 autonomy vehicle, it's highly likely that others like Tesla and Waymo would have done so already. And given that Tesla and other are increasingly focusing on the in-car entertainment and productivity, Apple's offering might not be as compelling as it seems right now. 

Tim Cook always says, "we want to be the best, not the first", but if you enter a nascent market too late, the odds of failure increases. Homepod is the perfect example of that.

Xed

dk49 said:

"It will take another 5 to 7 years to ship". I am afraid that's quite long, and if Apple finally launches the car in that time gap, it might be too late. Other car makers like Tesla would have evolved quite a lot. Even If Apple manages to release a Level 5 autonomy vehicle, it's highly likely that others like Tesla and Waymo would have done so already. And given that Tesla and other are increasingly focusing on the in-car entertainment and productivity, Apple's offering might not be as compelling as it seems right now. 

Tim Cook always says, "we want to be the best, not the first", but if you enter a nascent market too late, the odds of failure increases. Homepod is the perfect example of that.

Apple has a long history of entering established—non-nascent markets—with "experts" saying that it's too late, too radical, too expensive, etc., with a resultant owing of said market in terms of mindshare, direction, and profits.

The HomePod isn't one of them at this time, but there are reasons why a Siri-controlled device that puts security first can't compete with the likes of Google and Amazon when customers have little regard about their own data privacy… and I say this as someone who has four creepy Echos in his home. Even Apple had to scale back HomeKit security to get 3rd-party vendors to adopt it.

dk49

Xed said:

dk49 said:

"It will take another 5 to 7 years to ship". I am afraid that's quite long, and if Apple finally launches the car in that time gap, it might be too late. Other car makers like Tesla would have evolved quite a lot. Even If Apple manages to release a Level 5 autonomy vehicle, it's highly likely that others like Tesla and Waymo would have done so already. And given that Tesla and other are increasingly focusing on the in-car entertainment and productivity, Apple's offering might not be as compelling as it seems right now. 

Tim Cook always says, "we want to be the best, not the first", but if you enter a nascent market too late, the odds of failure increases. Homepod is the perfect example of that.

Apple has a long history of entering established—non-nascent markets—with "experts" saying that it's too late, too radical, too expensive, etc., with a resultant owing of said market in terms of mindshare, direction, and profits.

The HomePod isn't one of them at this time, but there are reasons why a Siri-controlled device that puts security first can't compete with the likes of Google and Amazon when customers have little regard about their own data privacy… and I say this as someone who has four creepy Echos in his home. Even Apple had to scale back HomeKit security to get 3rd-party vendors to adopt it.

And what would be an example of Apple entering a non-nascent market too late but still making it big? 

Xed

dk49 said:

Xed said:

dk49 said:

"It will take another 5 to 7 years to ship". I am afraid that's quite long, and if Apple finally launches the car in that time gap, it might be too late. Other car makers like Tesla would have evolved quite a lot. Even If Apple manages to release a Level 5 autonomy vehicle, it's highly likely that others like Tesla and Waymo would have done so already. And given that Tesla and other are increasingly focusing on the in-car entertainment and productivity, Apple's offering might not be as compelling as it seems right now. 

Tim Cook always says, "we want to be the best, not the first", but if you enter a nascent market too late, the odds of failure increases. Homepod is the perfect example of that.

Apple has a long history of entering established—non-nascent markets—with "experts" saying that it's too late, too radical, too expensive, etc., with a resultant owing of said market in terms of mindshare, direction, and profits.

The HomePod isn't one of them at this time, but there are reasons why a Siri-controlled device that puts security first can't compete with the likes of Google and Amazon when customers have little regard about their own data privacy… and I say this as someone who has four creepy Echos in his home. Even Apple had to scale back HomeKit security to get 3rd-party vendors to adopt it.

And what would be an example of Apple entering a non-nascent market too late but still making it big? 

That's the stupidest question I've ever heard. Do you not have a concept of what "too late" means? If Apple entered an established market and made it big then it clearly wasn't too late. Why the fuck does this even need to be explained?

dk49

Xed said:

dk49 said:

Xed said:

dk49 said:

"It will take another 5 to 7 years to ship". I am afraid that's quite long, and if Apple finally launches the car in that time gap, it might be too late. Other car makers like Tesla would have evolved quite a lot. Even If Apple manages to release a Level 5 autonomy vehicle, it's highly likely that others like Tesla and Waymo would have done so already. And given that Tesla and other are increasingly focusing on the in-car entertainment and productivity, Apple's offering might not be as compelling as it seems right now. 

Tim Cook always says, "we want to be the best, not the first", but if you enter a nascent market too late, the odds of failure increases. Homepod is the perfect example of that.

Apple has a long history of entering established—non-nascent markets—with "experts" saying that it's too late, too radical, too expensive, etc., with a resultant owing of said market in terms of mindshare, direction, and profits.

The HomePod isn't one of them at this time, but there are reasons why a Siri-controlled device that puts security first can't compete with the likes of Google and Amazon when customers have little regard about their own data privacy… and I say this as someone who has four creepy Echos in his home. Even Apple had to scale back HomeKit security to get 3rd-party vendors to adopt it.

And what would be an example of Apple entering a non-nascent market too late but still making it big? 

That's the stupidest question I've ever heard. Do you not have a concept of what "too late" means? If Apple entered an established market and made it big then it clearly wasn't too late. Why the fuck does this even need to be explained?

Seems like either you are dumb or don't have answer to my question, so you have resorted to cursing me instead. 

tenthousandthings

dk49 said:

Xed said:

dk49 said:

"It will take another 5 to 7 years to ship". I am afraid that's quite long, and if Apple finally launches the car in that time gap, it might be too late. Other car makers like Tesla would have evolved quite a lot. Even If Apple manages to release a Level 5 autonomy vehicle, it's highly likely that others like Tesla and Waymo would have done so already. And given that Tesla and other are increasingly focusing on the in-car entertainment and productivity, Apple's offering might not be as compelling as it seems right now. 

Tim Cook always says, "we want to be the best, not the first", but if you enter a nascent market too late, the odds of failure increases. Homepod is the perfect example of that.

Apple has a long history of entering established—non-nascent markets—with "experts" saying that it's too late, too radical, too expensive, etc., with a resultant owing of said market in terms of mindshare, direction, and profits.

The HomePod isn't one of them at this time, but there are reasons why a Siri-controlled device that puts security first can't compete with the likes of Google and Amazon when customers have little regard about their own data privacy… and I say this as someone who has four creepy Echos in his home. Even Apple had to scale back HomeKit security to get 3rd-party vendors to adopt it.

And what would be an example of Apple entering a non-nascent market too late but still making it big? 

I can’t speak for the OP, but it seems to me the iPhone is the prime example of that.

Smartphones were not new when it launched. Windows Mobile, Palm, BlackBerry, and Symbian phones all existed, and more. iPhone was derided as being far behind the competition—why? Because it didn’t allow third-party apps. The irony in that criticism, of course, is later, when Apple did introduce the iOS App Store, it crushed that competition almost literally overnight—mobile developers flocked to it because it wasn’t an expensive, pay-to-play scheme like all the others. You basically only paid Apple if you were successful. 

Xed

tenthousandthings said:

dk49 said:

Xed said:

dk49 said:

"It will take another 5 to 7 years to ship". I am afraid that's quite long, and if Apple finally launches the car in that time gap, it might be too late. Other car makers like Tesla would have evolved quite a lot. Even If Apple manages to release a Level 5 autonomy vehicle, it's highly likely that others like Tesla and Waymo would have done so already. And given that Tesla and other are increasingly focusing on the in-car entertainment and productivity, Apple's offering might not be as compelling as it seems right now. 

Tim Cook always says, "we want to be the best, not the first", but if you enter a nascent market too late, the odds of failure increases. Homepod is the perfect example of that.

Apple has a long history of entering established—non-nascent markets—with "experts" saying that it's too late, too radical, too expensive, etc., with a resultant owing of said market in terms of mindshare, direction, and profits.

The HomePod isn't one of them at this time, but there are reasons why a Siri-controlled device that puts security first can't compete with the likes of Google and Amazon when customers have little regard about their own data privacy… and I say this as someone who has four creepy Echos in his home. Even Apple had to scale back HomeKit security to get 3rd-party vendors to adopt it.

And what would be an example of Apple entering a non-nascent market too late but still making it big? 

I can’t speak for the OP, but it seems to me the iPhone is the prime example of that.

Smartphones were not new when it launched. Windows Mobile, Palm, BlackBerry, and Symbian phones all existed, and more. iPhone was derided as being far behind the competition—why? Because it didn’t allow third-party apps. The irony in that criticism, of course, is later, when Apple did introduce the iOS App Store, it crushed that competition almost literally overnight—mobile developers flocked to it because it wasn’t an expensive, pay-to-play scheme like all the others. You basically only paid Apple if you were successful. 

You just described a scenerio where Apple was very clearly not too late.

dk49

tenthousandthings said:

dk49 said:

Xed said:

dk49 said:

"It will take another 5 to 7 years to ship". I am afraid that's quite long, and if Apple finally launches the car in that time gap, it might be too late. Other car makers like Tesla would have evolved quite a lot. Even If Apple manages to release a Level 5 autonomy vehicle, it's highly likely that others like Tesla and Waymo would have done so already. And given that Tesla and other are increasingly focusing on the in-car entertainment and productivity, Apple's offering might not be as compelling as it seems right now. 

Tim Cook always says, "we want to be the best, not the first", but if you enter a nascent market too late, the odds of failure increases. Homepod is the perfect example of that.

Apple has a long history of entering established—non-nascent markets—with "experts" saying that it's too late, too radical, too expensive, etc., with a resultant owing of said market in terms of mindshare, direction, and profits.

The HomePod isn't one of them at this time, but there are reasons why a Siri-controlled device that puts security first can't compete with the likes of Google and Amazon when customers have little regard about their own data privacy… and I say this as someone who has four creepy Echos in his home. Even Apple had to scale back HomeKit security to get 3rd-party vendors to adopt it.

And what would be an example of Apple entering a non-nascent market too late but still making it big? 

I can’t speak for the OP, but it seems to me the iPhone is the prime example of that.

Smartphones were not new when it launched. Windows Mobile, Palm, BlackBerry, and Symbian phones all existed, and more. iPhone was derided as being far behind the competition—why? Because it didn’t allow third-party apps. The irony in that criticism, of course, is later, when Apple did introduce the iOS App Store, it crushed that competition almost literally overnight—mobile developers flocked to it because it wasn’t an expensive, pay-to-play scheme like all the others. You basically only paid Apple if you were successful. 

I knew someone would say this, but clearly you didn't read my comments carefully. iPhone literally created a new kind of phone category that didn't exist earlier. The "mobile as a platform" we see today, one that replaces computers when it comes to content consumption was created by the iPhone. So iPhone didn't enter a nascent market, it actually created one. 

But the "iPhone moment" of the auto industry has already happened. Tesla did that. Electrification and autonomy changed the fundamentals of an industry that's more than a century old. iPhone did to mobile phones what Tesla did to the auto industry. 

tenthousandthings

dk49 said:

tenthousandthings said:

dk49 said:

Xed said:

dk49 said:

"It will take another 5 to 7 years to ship". I am afraid that's quite long, and if Apple finally launches the car in that time gap, it might be too late. Other car makers like Tesla would have evolved quite a lot. Even If Apple manages to release a Level 5 autonomy vehicle, it's highly likely that others like Tesla and Waymo would have done so already. And given that Tesla and other are increasingly focusing on the in-car entertainment and productivity, Apple's offering might not be as compelling as it seems right now. 

Tim Cook always says, "we want to be the best, not the first", but if you enter a nascent market too late, the odds of failure increases. Homepod is the perfect example of that.

Apple has a long history of entering established—non-nascent markets—with "experts" saying that it's too late, too radical, too expensive, etc., with a resultant owing of said market in terms of mindshare, direction, and profits.

The HomePod isn't one of them at this time, but there are reasons why a Siri-controlled device that puts security first can't compete with the likes of Google and Amazon when customers have little regard about their own data privacy… and I say this as someone who has four creepy Echos in his home. Even Apple had to scale back HomeKit security to get 3rd-party vendors to adopt it.

And what would be an example of Apple entering a non-nascent market too late but still making it big? 

I can’t speak for the OP, but it seems to me the iPhone is the prime example of that.

Smartphones were not new when it launched. Windows Mobile, Palm, BlackBerry, and Symbian phones all existed, and more. iPhone was derided as being far behind the competition—why? Because it didn’t allow third-party apps. The irony in that criticism, of course, is later, when Apple did introduce the iOS App Store, it crushed that competition almost literally overnight—mobile developers flocked to it because it wasn’t an expensive, pay-to-play scheme like all the others. You basically only paid Apple if you were successful. 

I knew someone would say this, but clearly you didn't read my comments carefully. iPhone literally created a new kind of phone category that didn't exist earlier. The "mobile as a platform" we see today, one that replaces computers when it comes to content consumption was created by the iPhone. So iPhone didn't enter a nascent market, it actually created one. 

But the "iPhone moment" of the auto industry has already happened. Tesla did that. Electrification and autonomy changed the fundamentals of an industry that's more than a century old. iPhone did to mobile phones what Tesla did to the auto industry. 

Ugh, sorry I did not have time to look at this until now.

You completely missed the point, which was that it wasn't an entirely "nascent" market. It had been in place for at least five years, so an eternity. In fact, I was remiss, I didn't list easily the most important (in hindsight) of those existing, competing smartphone platforms: Java ME (Java Platform, Micro Edition), since it led directly and/or indirectly (a matter of perspective, see Oracle v. Google) to Android. Your fantasy of some sort of paradigm-shifting "iPhone moment" is just as wrong as those "experts" the pedantic Xed referenced above. 

dk49

tenthousandthings said:

dk49 said:

tenthousandthings said:

dk49 said:

Xed said:

dk49 said:

"It will take another 5 to 7 years to ship". I am afraid that's quite long, and if Apple finally launches the car in that time gap, it might be too late. Other car makers like Tesla would have evolved quite a lot. Even If Apple manages to release a Level 5 autonomy vehicle, it's highly likely that others like Tesla and Waymo would have done so already. And given that Tesla and other are increasingly focusing on the in-car entertainment and productivity, Apple's offering might not be as compelling as it seems right now. 

Tim Cook always says, "we want to be the best, not the first", but if you enter a nascent market too late, the odds of failure increases. Homepod is the perfect example of that.

Apple has a long history of entering established—non-nascent markets—with "experts" saying that it's too late, too radical, too expensive, etc., with a resultant owing of said market in terms of mindshare, direction, and profits.

The HomePod isn't one of them at this time, but there are reasons why a Siri-controlled device that puts security first can't compete with the likes of Google and Amazon when customers have little regard about their own data privacy… and I say this as someone who has four creepy Echos in his home. Even Apple had to scale back HomeKit security to get 3rd-party vendors to adopt it.

And what would be an example of Apple entering a non-nascent market too late but still making it big? 

I can’t speak for the OP, but it seems to me the iPhone is the prime example of that.

Smartphones were not new when it launched. Windows Mobile, Palm, BlackBerry, and Symbian phones all existed, and more. iPhone was derided as being far behind the competition—why? Because it didn’t allow third-party apps. The irony in that criticism, of course, is later, when Apple did introduce the iOS App Store, it crushed that competition almost literally overnight—mobile developers flocked to it because it wasn’t an expensive, pay-to-play scheme like all the others. You basically only paid Apple if you were successful. 

I knew someone would say this, but clearly you didn't read my comments carefully. iPhone literally created a new kind of phone category that didn't exist earlier. The "mobile as a platform" we see today, one that replaces computers when it comes to content consumption was created by the iPhone. So iPhone didn't enter a nascent market, it actually created one. 

But the "iPhone moment" of the auto industry has already happened. Tesla did that. Electrification and autonomy changed the fundamentals of an industry that's more than a century old. iPhone did to mobile phones what Tesla did to the auto industry. 

Ugh, sorry I did not have time to look at this until now.

You completely missed the point, which was that it wasn't an entirely "nascent" market. It had been in place for at least five years, so an eternity. In fact, I was remiss, I didn't list easily the most important (in hindsight) of those existing, competing smartphone platforms: Java ME (Java Platform, Micro Edition), since it led directly and/or indirectly (a matter of perspective, see Oracle v. Google) to Android. Your fantasy of some sort of paradigm-shifting "iPhone moment" is just as wrong as those "experts" the pedantic Xed referenced above. 

You again missed the point. The iPhone was not just about a sophisticated OS in a phone, it was more about its revolutionary touch interface and UI. The paradigm shift in the mobile industry was caused primarily by that. Because as you said, there were already phones running sophisticated OS, such as Microsoft and Blackberry, which were more advanced than even Java based OS.