I can certainly see why:
Posted on 09/23/2015 5:16:09 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Yesterday morning, we reported that Apple had discussed requirements for testing autonomous cars on California's public roads with the state's Department of Motor Vehicles. At the end of that article, we made some predictions about Apple's automotive plans, and we guessed that, based on Apple's track record with making sleek, desirable consumer goods, it was probably planning to make cars, too. (Unlike Google, which may be just about the software.)
Within moments, our hunches were confirmed. Citing everyone's favorite sources -- "people familiar with the matter" -- the Wall Street Journal reported that that Apple plans to complete its first vehicle in 2019.
When consumers will be able to drive away in those vehicles remains unclear. If the report is accurate, however, it does share a couple of interesting details about Apple's first car:
1. The car won't be fully autonomous -- at least, not at first. Like Tesla, Apple is focused on electrification, with autonomous features to roll out over time, until vehicles are fully self-driving.
2. "Project Titan" is about to become a major line-item in Apple's budget. Sources suggest that Apple plans to triple the size of its as-yet-unconfirmed car division from 600 employees to around 1,800.
Of course, when there's car news like this, the media wants to talk to someone who knows a bit about the automotive business. That's why CNBC rang up industry legend Bob Lutz and asked him about Apple's plans.
Not surprisingly, the notoriously gruff Lutz was pretty dismissive, suggesting that Apple was standing on the brink of a "gigantic money pit". His rationale?
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
It will be yuge!
The fag that runs Apple is so damned politically correct that instead of manufacturing profitable gas-driven cars, he's going for non-profitable electric cars.
Good luck with that.
...It will be yuge!...
Or, will it be Yugo? We know how well that worked out.
Apple is simply trying to avoid taxes.
They will probably get the government to by these cars, and then they get a huge tax write off.
Johnny the Fruit cab.....
The jokes write themselves.
I can see sitting in the parking lot frustrated trying to shut off my Apple car. “Where’s the damn slide bar!”
I can certainly see why:
Will it be like everything Apple makes:
Made in China?
Here’s the real scoop on Apple Cars, with complete details:
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/apple-car-round-up-what-we-know-so-far-201932036.html
That’s funny!
I think Apple is betting that while urban hipsters are reputed to love things like bicycles, mass transit, and car sharing, they’d really prefer their very own transportation module. And as Tesla shows, will pay outlandish sums (and suck up hundreds of millions in government subsidies) to obtain a politically correct vehicle.
*chuckle* — good image.
That said, there is a future in electrical cars and eventually they will perhaps be more efficient and will make more sense. I won't be an early adopter but I look forward to seeing what develops in the meantime.
You and I may know that, but query any Tesla owner (or 80% of the people living in California) and you won’t get that view.
I’m hoping that they get them to work before I get too old to drive. I just hope it stores destinations like a GPS; otherwise I can see my senile self typing in Jacksonville FL instead of Jacksonville NC.
Cars that "safely lock you inside and drive themselves", under the absolute control of government bureaucrats... What could possibly go wrong?
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Apple has a patent on a hydrogen fuel cell using a dry source of hydrogen that will power an iPhone for over two weeks . . . in the same space of a normal iPhone and it’s refuelable. Think about that technology scaled up to a car.
Except that's exactly the advantage that Apple has employed to create millions upon millions of iPhones, iPads, and other much-loved devices. Apple doesn't build the iPhone, it has suicidally inclined workers at Foxconn do all that.
This author demonstrates his clueless lack of awareness by use of that myth. The suicide rate at Foxconn even at its highest point in 2010, was one quarter of that of the same age group for China's population in general, one-eighth that of the same age group of American Ivy League University students, and one-twentieth that of the overall US suicide rate for all ages. . . And it is FAR LOWER in the past five years, when they've had fewer than ten suicides among all their 1.5 million workers at all their plants!
During an 18 month period centered around 2010, there had been a total of 18 suicides, none of which involved workers at an Apple product assembly plant. The cluster of eight suicides occurred at a factory assembling Microsoft Xboxes, HP Computers, Nokia cell phones, and Sony Playstations.
Even then, the suicide rate among Foxconn's workers was less than 0.75 per 100,000 per year.
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