steviet02

thrang said:

Apple survived and prospered even after Jobs himself was gone...a little perspective here...no one is irreplaceable...

radarthekat said:

steviet02 said:

Fair enough, and I stated in another post, that I realized they have hired Tesla Engineers and battery pack engineers so while I believe they have some talent, I'm not sure it's the right talent to design a car.  Elon Musks engineering and physics background was pretty extensive, if you haven't watched his bio or read about his background you should check it out, interesting.

But look at it from a business standpoint, and Apples history in particular. Apples margins are crazy, ~50% and up in most cases.  The car business is a much different animal, assuming consumer facing, on margin levels that Apple would laugh at. Thats one of the reasons why Tesla isn't really profiting right now, it costs them too much for the battery packs.  I don't imagine Apple would be making their own, but if they do maybe thats where they save manufacturing costs, but the R&D costs outweigh that savings considering where LG and Panasonic are already. 

Lets assume that some of the assumptions are correct, this chief had been put under unrealistic pressure and deadlines.  As a shareholder thats what concerns me about this particular post is that a 16 year veteran who has zero background in managing the design of a car was put in charge of it and not one person above him understands what it takes to build a car, let alone him.  It's an assumption but that part about unrealistic deadlines is what concerns me most.

Musk is an impressive guy, but he's not designing the whole of Tesla's cars by himself. So he's his own company of engineers doing most of the actual engineering and design. Much like Steve Jobs, despite getting much credit, was t the guy doing the actual work, otherwise the VP who is leaving Apple really has no resume to boast about, right?

So there has to first be recognition that there re many who apply their talents, in any company, to get the actual work accomplished, with appropriate direction from management.

Then there needs to be recognition that, in every high tech company (I've started a couple, most recently TimeTrade.com), there's ALWAYS constant pressure to meet tight deadlines throughout every stage of product development.  That's a fact of life, not something that should raise any specific concerns.  

Finally, we don't know that thi guy was put in charge of the project, the whole project, the first phase of tne project, the staffing of the project, or just building out the roadmap for the project.  Unless the 'personal reasons' are truly reasons that came up in his life recently, like a health issue, then it's a safe assumption that he would have telegraphed his exit well in advance, potentially sufficiently in advance to have had his role on the project circumscribed right from the start.  Anyone who has managed a startup, which such a project mirrors in many ways, knows how to shape the project's management team and how to project well ahead how each part of that management team will contribute.  It's as likely as any other scenario that this guy was thinking my about moving on, but agreed to stay long enough to help form the team and get the project to a certain milestone.  That's no less likely than the assumption he's just dropping out unexpectedly, leaving the project in turmoil.  We should give Apple a bit more credit than to assume that latter scenario.

radarthekat said:

steviet02 said:

Elon musk didn't start tesla motors.

Edit: And considering musks background, from an engineering standpoint it's not crazy for him to have been involved . Supply chain master goes to Cook all the way. 

Read back my comment. I didn't say Elon Musk started Tesla. I said he is leading the charge...

 And if having an engineering background is all that's required to gain other's confidence in one's ability to be involved in innovation of the automobile, well, I imagine there are quite a number of people with engineering backgrounds at Apple.

Rayz2016 said:

Music players
Smartphones
Mobile processors
Materials engineering

Those are a couple of other things that Apple didn't have the talent to build. Thank god they steered clear of all that, eh? It would've been a bloodbath!

Youve also missed something else here: Apple is never first to market. The iPad project started before the iPhone was conceived, which meant they must have been designing it for a good five years before it saw the light of day. They don't have to be first; they have to be better. 

genovelle said:

steviet02 said:

I'm more concerned why Apple is venturing into this realm. While one could argue that a cell phone was outside of their business years ago, they at least made portable devices with batteries and storage prior to that. This seems so far outside the zone for them thats almost incomprehensible that they would even know what time frame to assign tasks.

Electric cars are the ultimate portable device with batteries and storage.