Even if Apple is working on a car, Tim Cook says hiring doesn't reflect commitment
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook was expectedly noncommittal when asked about the prospect of an Apple-built car in a new interview, but he did indicate that hiring efforts are not necessarily evidence that a project is a sure thing.
Inside a Google self-driving car.
"So I can't talk about this certain area that you're talking about," Cook said when asked about the so-called Apple Car by Fortune. "But when we start spending large amounts of money, we're committed at that point. But we explore things with teams of people. And that's a part of being curious. Part of exploring technologies and picking the right one is becoming so familiar with it you can see ways that it can be used."
Apple is thought to have hundreds of people working on a vehicle under the "Project Titan" moniker. Cook claimed, however, that teams of that size didn't constitute spending "gobs of money," at least from Apple's perspective.
The company is believed to have multiple car-related facilities located in Sunnyvale, Calif., and reports have indicated that Apple could launch an electric car as soon as 2019 or 2020. The first model may or may not be self-driving, though Apple is at least thought to be working on the technology for subsequent vehicles.
Executives with the company reportedly flew to Austria recently, looking to meet with contract manufacturers including Magna Steyr, a unit of Canada's Magna International. While Apple could conceivably afford its own car factories, building up the needed infrastructure would likely be not just expensive but outside its expertise, and extremely conspicuous, tipping off the public and competitors.
Inside a Google self-driving car.
"So I can't talk about this certain area that you're talking about," Cook said when asked about the so-called Apple Car by Fortune. "But when we start spending large amounts of money, we're committed at that point. But we explore things with teams of people. And that's a part of being curious. Part of exploring technologies and picking the right one is becoming so familiar with it you can see ways that it can be used."
Apple is thought to have hundreds of people working on a vehicle under the "Project Titan" moniker. Cook claimed, however, that teams of that size didn't constitute spending "gobs of money," at least from Apple's perspective.
The company is believed to have multiple car-related facilities located in Sunnyvale, Calif., and reports have indicated that Apple could launch an electric car as soon as 2019 or 2020. The first model may or may not be self-driving, though Apple is at least thought to be working on the technology for subsequent vehicles.
Executives with the company reportedly flew to Austria recently, looking to meet with contract manufacturers including Magna Steyr, a unit of Canada's Magna International. While Apple could conceivably afford its own car factories, building up the needed infrastructure would likely be not just expensive but outside its expertise, and extremely conspicuous, tipping off the public and competitors.
Comments
I'm so sick of tech-blogosphere's delusion over self-driving cars.
/s
We're literally talking self-driving cars, and the delusion that they will be anything resembling mainstream anytime in the foreseeable future.
He used to be part of a ventriloquist act, but after becoming sentient, he quit and got a job with uber.
It would be super smart for Apple to introduce an electric car with hundreds of sensors that process activity, environment, weather, speed, habits, signals, electricity, reaction time, steering, pedal and brake force etc. as much as possible. Gather all data anbd LATER develop a self driving vehicle. This would be the safest, easiest, most economical way to go anbout it.
These articles are talking as if a self driving AppleCar will be on the market the next time you shop.
Possibly... I mean that's a little extreme, but the unwritten speed limit here in TN on basically any 4+ lane road is ~70mph. Except Nashville. Everyone seems to drive the speed limit. It's very weird visiting there.
Also, interesting to possibly only myself, but I have a good friend who is a JAG and I've been discussing the whole security saga with him and he mentioned a couple interesting things the other day. He said he heard an Army security expert give a lecture and had a couple key takeaways: 1) Yes, Apple is the most secure and hardest to get info out of, hack etc. 2) NEVER sync your phone to a car and especially not a rental because essentially all your personal info is going out the sunroof to who-knows-who's servers, who-knows-where for who-knows-what purpose. I immediately thought "no wonder Apple wants to make a car".
Just throwin' it out there.
But I like making predictions as much as the next guy, so my views:
- If an Apple Car, it will not be self-driving to begin with. I am not a naysayer on the technology's progress & eventual capabilities, but the infrastructure / regulatory / legal / insurance hurdles to cross to make this something an average person can purchase in multiple countries (not just in say a few cities), is many years away.
- Apple will not target "transportation as a service" and compete with Uber / Lyft. A car itself is pretty far away from Apple's existing business & expertise, but at least it is a "product" that you sell to the buyer, many people spend hours in them and can integrate to the Apple ecosystem, & a huge part of Apple's success is that in consumer business the buyer & user are the same. Building out a service, where the end user doesn't own the product, and doesn't have an emotional attachment to it, and doesn't necessarily value it, is light years from Apple's business & reasons for success. And that is without getting into the fact that Uber itself is having quite a battle globally with the local taxi industries, with a PR headache that is getting bigger all the time, and I am sure Apple wants no part of that. While Transportation-a-a-S is for certain going grow & will reduce the growth of car ownership, the majority of vehicles will continue to be purchased for many decades to come.
- If an Apple Car, I do expect that it will be electric drive train, but we have to be honest about the state of the industry & the market to sell them. After about 10 years of having viable electric cars, I think there are only about 500K total (or less) on the roads in the US. It is not a big market (yet). Apple might be about to enter it at the right time of course as it starts to take off (and Apple could be a hugely positive catalyst to make them take off), but lots of work remains.
- What can Apple bring to a car product that will make a difference? Is advanced integration between smartphone, watch & car enough? I just purchased a 2016 unit, and while the entertainment & control package is good, it could be much better. Make it more flexible to switch somehow from personal space, to family space, to work space? Making an iconic design? Build it out of new materials that while expensive at first, provide them with better margins in a few years, thus making an impact in a few years?
Definitely interesting space.
Profitability is what Tim Cook is really looking to find.
Bottom line is we’ve bought into Google’s vaporware concept car and think it’s right around the corner. It isn’t.