Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly rides Rivian pickup at Sun Valley
Apple CEO Tim Cook allegedly took time out from the annual Sun Valley conference to take a trip in a Rivian Automotive electric vehicle.
A repeat visitor to the Allen & Co Sun Valley media retreat, Tim Cook takes time to speak to the chiefs of other major companies in attendance, with the event used to share ideas and to broker deals. In one excursion, Cook seemingly checked out a product by a potential competitor in the automotive space.
According to people familiar with the event speaking to Bloomberg, Cook was seen taking a ride in a green Rivian electric pickup truck in downtown Sun Valley on Thursday. Cook's use of the vehicle allegedly ferried the Apple CEO from the Sun Valley Resort to a downtown location for dinner.
Rivian CEO and founder R.J. Scaringe attended the retreat, and brought along two electric vehicles with him. Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone was reportedly one of the dozens of attendees who inspected the vehicles over the course of the event.
It is likely that Cook used the opportunity to check out a major rival to Apple's own automotive plans, as the company has been working on its own Apple Car project for quite some time.
Apple has repeatedly been tipped to have worked on its own electric vehicle, and has looked into partnering with an existing car producer, as well as expanding its own supply chain into the industry. It has also been the subject of speculation about whether Apple is still actively planning a launch, with claims of the team being dissolved, as well as various high-profile departures.
Read on AppleInsider
A repeat visitor to the Allen & Co Sun Valley media retreat, Tim Cook takes time to speak to the chiefs of other major companies in attendance, with the event used to share ideas and to broker deals. In one excursion, Cook seemingly checked out a product by a potential competitor in the automotive space.
According to people familiar with the event speaking to Bloomberg, Cook was seen taking a ride in a green Rivian electric pickup truck in downtown Sun Valley on Thursday. Cook's use of the vehicle allegedly ferried the Apple CEO from the Sun Valley Resort to a downtown location for dinner.
Rivian CEO and founder R.J. Scaringe attended the retreat, and brought along two electric vehicles with him. Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone was reportedly one of the dozens of attendees who inspected the vehicles over the course of the event.
It is likely that Cook used the opportunity to check out a major rival to Apple's own automotive plans, as the company has been working on its own Apple Car project for quite some time.
Apple has repeatedly been tipped to have worked on its own electric vehicle, and has looked into partnering with an existing car producer, as well as expanding its own supply chain into the industry. It has also been the subject of speculation about whether Apple is still actively planning a launch, with claims of the team being dissolved, as well as various high-profile departures.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Rivan has gotten some excellent reviews of their vehicles. They are expected to produce between 25,000 to 28,000 this year. Nevertheless their stock has been pounded, as some investors aren’t happy with the numbers. Some think that Rivan will run out of money. It would be an interesting move if Apple invested in the company, or even bought it outright. I would be for that. Unlike a number of other possible competitors who have produced one or two cars, but nothing else, Rivan is actually producing. It’s easy to forget how many years it took Tesla to get to 40,000 cars a year - a lot longer than it’s taking Rivan to ramp up. With Apple’s money, the doubts about the company’s survival would end.
Apple could, and no doubt would, revamp the designs and add their own work. This might be the best solution Apple has.
I would hope they could ramp up faster than Tesla did see as the first Roadster was sold 14 years ago. Tesla was very much experimental then with very few full EVs being made and none looking or feeling like good automobiles. For as muchI've grown to dislike Musk as a person he did help move the needle considerably on EV design and adoption.
My problem with the Rivian at this point is that its ability to tow and range fall far short of what the CyberTruck would do. he 500 miles was kind of a sweet, but that's not out yet, has gone through redesigns that could easily affect the originally stated numbers, and I've already gotten my deposit back because I try not to support companies that are run by corrupt individuals.
The Ford F-150 Lightning and new Hummer also look good. I hope Rivian can grow because they have some really nice design elements.
I recently saw a production Rivian at a charging station and the fit and finish seemed quite impressive. The front-end aesthetic is definitely taste specific. Not having to have a big cooling grille to get air into a large radiator challenges designers to come up with an alternative grill that doesn’t serve much more function than being a place to stick forward facing lighting. Frankly, current ICE pickups have grown unnecessarily massive front grills that resemble steam locomotives, Tonka trucks, or mining vehicles, but done mostly for effect. I would not at all be surprised to see massive chrome plated mastodon tusks on the front of a new pickup - just because … bigger is bigger.
From what I’ve heard from acquaintances who are closely involved with some of these emerging EV manufacturers including Rivian, getting the production up and running at the scale required to generate profits is the biggest challenge. If you don’t nail the process before you scale it - you’re going to run out of money very quickly. As much as some folks tend to think that the Teslas of the world are “smarter” than the old line automobile manufacturers, those old liners know how to scale, they’ve been investing in automation and process for several decades, and some of them, e.g., Toyota and “The Toyota Way,” are the sound models for process optimization, production control, and quality management, even though Toyota itself fell short of its lofty goals on at least one occasion. Everyone has to climb the learning curve, as Tesla discovered and so will Rivian - and Apple.
Especially since they're a long way off from making enough for the masses....
Remember that the only reason why the media reported about Steve's car was because he refused to mount license plates on it. It was otherwise a pretty typical silver Mercedes-Benz, similar to tens of thousands of similar models in the greater SF Bay Area.
Unsurprisingly an Internet search (you know, what people used to do 10-15 years ago) actually turns up some evidence that he favors mid-range BMWs and Mercedes, very modest for a CEO of a Fortune 10 company. At one point (as CEO) he was driving a BMW 528e.
A sensible automobile choice would be very much in character with his non-flashy pragmatic personality.
And it depends where you look. If you're at a construction site, probably everyone who is driving a pickup truck probably needs it. If you go to a country music festival, maybe not as many. If you visit a high school student parking lot in an upscale bedroom community maybe nobody needs it.
For sure, for some pickup truck ownership is a status symbol, just like a Rolex wristwatch, $2500 Italian loafers, or fake breasts.
Remember that want, need and have are three different things.