JWSC

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JWSC
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  • Apple now looking to tackle car manufacture by itself

    JWSCJWSC
    StrangeDays said:
    elijahg said:
    larryjw said:
    scott6666 said:
    If these people can’t make a TV how on earth are they gonna make a car?
    Of course, Apple can make a TV. So can thousands of others. 

    "Can" is never the issue; it's does it make sense, can a company bring something to the market that others have not been able to?

    Tesla has mind-share. I'm not so sure Tesla is here for the long term; they don't have much of a track record. They exist by virtue of some unexplainable deification of Elon Musk -- the cult of personality.

    What nobody outside of Apple has is any idea about Apple's plans, if any. 
    The cult of personality, just like the cult following Jobsian Apple had? The only doubt over Apple’s longevity was when Jobs wasn’t CEO. And much the same for Tesla, if it didn’t have such a charismatic enthusiast at the helm I don’t think it’d have anywhere near the success it does.  
    Charismatic? Have you watched his presentations? Terrible speaker, awkward, nervous, shaken. Opposite of charismatic. 
    That is true.  Musk is a far cry from Jobs when it comes to presentation skills.  It matters not.  Some might even think that’s part of his charm.  Wherever else you might say, he displays tremendous enthusiasm and that means something to many in his audience as well as those who work for him.

    Musk dives into far more technical detail than jobs ever did.  Jobs had good reason for not going too deep into the technology - he knew who his target audience was.  Musk doesn’t care.  He’s an engineer at heart just like Woz.  And for that I am eternally thankful since it becomes tiring when leaders constantly feel the need to dumb down their presentations for the “unwashed” masses.  It’s time younger, and hopefully more technically literate, audiences expect more in terms of technical communications.  This is the 21st century.
    watto_cobrabyronl

  • Apple's Kevin Lynch tapped to take over leadership of 'Apple Car' project

    JWSCJWSC
    gatorguy said:
    Another software guy, former Google exec and current Apple AI and machine learning VP John Giannandrea, is overseeing the entire project while Lynch will handle day-to-day. So yeah, definitely no indication that they're focusing on hardware and building a car.  
    Didn’t Jobs say in order to do great software you need your own hardware?  Paraphrasing, but it went something like that.
    patchythepiratebyronlGeorgeBMacwatto_cobra

  • Apple now looking to tackle car manufacture by itself

    JWSCJWSC
    larryjw said:
    scott6666 said:
    If these people can’t make a TV how on earth are they gonna make a car?
    Of course, Apple can make a TV. So can thousands of others. 

    "Can" is never the issue; it's does it make sense, can a company bring something to the market that others have not been able to?

    Tesla has mind-share. I'm not so sure Tesla is here for the long term; they don't have much of a track record. They exist by virtue of some unexplainable deification of Elon Musk -- the cult of personality.

    What nobody outside of Apple has is any idea about Apple's plans, if any. 
    There may be a cult of personality around Musk.  But what’s more important is that he is a driver of technology development and he knows how to motivate and inspire people the way Jobs did - perhaps even better.
    elijahgwatto_cobrabyronltechno

  • Apple now looking to tackle car manufacture by itself

    JWSCJWSC
    Japhey said:
    Marvin said:
    haikus said:
    Do we really need an Apple car? I dislike cars so I may be biased ;-) I understand that for many people cars have a much prominent importance. Nevertheless, I would love Apple to innovate instead of (allegedly) improving something that already exists.
    We need something better than what we have. Some people like the idea of a super car:





    but this would only be worth doing if they could hit a mass market price point. One thing we definitely need is driverless taxis and if they can look cool at the same time so be it.



    A lot of the Apple SVPs have been reported as fans of luxury cars and Steve Jobs was too. Jony Ive's cars are listed here:


    and he was at a design event talking about cars:


    If Apple does nothing then the industry won't improve much just like how the smartphone industry was. The car industry today looks like the smartphone industry in 2006 - too many models, nobody making anything that stands above the rest, all overpriced for the experience they offer, which is an experience of necessity rather than contentment.

    Some people point to Tesla changing the industry but Tesla cars haven't done to the car industry what the iPhone did to smartphones, they've been going for 18 years and have around 2% marketshare. The car industry will change more slowly due to the high purchase price but even in isolation, a Tesla product doesn't feel significantly better than competing models to the point that it would be hard to choose something other than a Tesla. Tesla has made owning an EV practical, which has some significance but this is like Blackberry making the web accessible on mobile. It was usable but it wasn't the right way to do it. Jony Ive refers to this in the video above saying that innovating is hard because there's no point of reference. Making an innovative car requires rethinking every part that goes into making one based on everything we now know that people use them for. Apple is still the best company that can deliver on this.
    Why do we “definitely need” driverless taxis? How exactly will that improve society? A lot of people rely on those jobs to survive. I think we’ll find that removing the human element from certain things won’t be the utopian experience we think it will be. 
    Driverless taxis are definitely convenient, especially in urban areas.  Uber and Lyft are increasingly popular.  But you’re right, not everyone wants one.

    Apple’s claim to fame is making “personal” devices.  Not sure that driverless taxis fit that mold.  I believe Apple has a much better chance of making volume sales to individuals versus local governments or company fleets.  And the latter will demand discounts, not something Apple would be particularly fond of providing.
    watto_cobra

  • Apple now looking to tackle car manufacture by itself

    JWSCJWSC
    byronl said:
    Marvin said:
     haikus said:
    Do we really need an Apple car? I dislike cars so I may be biased ;-) I understand that for many people cars have a much prominent importance. Nevertheless, I would love Apple to innovate instead of (allegedly) improving something that already exists.
    We need something better than what we have. Some people like the idea of a super car:





    but this would only be worth doing if they could hit a mass market price point. One thing we definitely need is driverless taxis and if they can look cool at the same time so be it.



    A lot of the Apple SVPs have been reported as fans of luxury cars and Steve Jobs was too. Jony Ive's cars are listed here:


    and he was at a design event talking about cars:


    If Apple does nothing then the industry won't improve much just like how the smartphone industry was. The car industry today looks like the smartphone industry in 2006 - too many models, nobody making anything that stands above the rest, all overpriced for the experience they offer, which is an experience of necessity rather than contentment.

    Some people point to Tesla changing the industry but Tesla cars haven't done to the car industry what the iPhone did to smartphones, they've been going for 18 years and have around 2% marketshare. The car industry will change more slowly due to the high purchase price but even in isolation, a Tesla product doesn't feel significantly better than competing models to the point that it would be hard to choose something other than a Tesla. Tesla has made owning an EV practical, which has some significance but this is like Blackberry making the web accessible on mobile. It was usable but it wasn't the right way to do it. Jony Ive refers to this in the video above saying that innovating is hard because there's no point of reference. Making an innovative car requires rethinking every part that goes into making one based on everything we now know that people use them for. Apple is still the best company that can deliver on this.
    “ like Blackberry making the web accessible on mobile. ”
    how??? do you own a tesla? most people that own them love them. not only have they made it practical to own an ev but they have the best powertrain technology in the world, best battery technology, best self driving technology, great software on the level of apple and google (automakers’ software has been notoriously bad for a long time) etc.
    tesla IS the apple of cars. they are the company that started the transition of the world to ev’s.
    i do think apple can make a great car design and user experience but everything else? yea…
    also their market share increases significantly every year and they still sell the most ev’s out of everyone (and will continue to). 
    Beat me to it in response to Marvin.  Tesla owners are fanatical in their devotion to the cars (recall the days when our favorite fruit company was religiously followed).  Tesla’s market share is going to increase rapidly over the next few years.

    I do think that Apple doing this (the manufacturing) themselves is the right way to go at the start.  Apple needs to learn this themselves because it will give them insight into how they need to think about design for manufacture, since they have no direct experience with auto manufacture, assembly, and test.  For this reason alone it is a mistake to rely on anyone else.

    Once Apple has groked auto manufacturing, they may be able to subcontract it out to lower costs over time.
    elijahgwatto_cobra