Here is the proof that Apple is secretly developing a car battery

businessinsider.com ^ | May 14, 2015, 12:00 PM | Rob Price

[ckilmer]

For several months now, rumours of increasing credibility have circulated that Apple is secretly working on an electric car project.

This week, the Cupertino company reportedly will settle a lawsuit brought against it by A123 Systems — a large-battery company that alleges Apple deliberately poached its employees to develop its own car battery technology.

[ckilmer]

ping

[Norm Lenhart]

Be nice if they developed an OS that didn’t crash the music industry (production side) with every new upgrade.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

It’ll probably be even more overpriced than all of their products usually are.

[MeshugeMikey]

Backwards compatibility seems a thing of the past , doesnt it!

[Cementjungle]

The all new iBattery, for only $24,000.

It can hold a charge for 2 hours (then needs to recharge for 12 hours).

It automatically connects to the iCloud to store all it's operating parameters in real-time (your iPhone needs to be within 10 feet of the battery for it to work at all).

Customers are already camping out in front of Apple stores in some cities, waiting for the announcement that the batteries are available.

[Norm Lenhart]

Ask any studio running Pro Tools what happens with EVERY apple upgrade. There are places still running 5 year old OS because the hardware companies can’t keep up with stable drivers for the crap Apple comes out with on crucial tools.

[kvanbrunt2]

kinda did that way back at the get go. xerox parc.

[Swordmaker]

I have a disagreement with the thrust of this article, and even with the lawsuit in general. Apple does not have to be interested in making a car to be interested in high density batteries. In fact, high density batteries are of extreme importance to all of Apple's mobile devices and how long the charges last. . . and how long the devices will operate before requiring a re-charge. Hiring a world class specialist in battery density is a no-brainer to increase such capacities for those devices. I find it highly unlikely that Apple would be interested in making their own batteries, ever. They do not do it now, and would be unlikely to do it in the future for an Apple Automobile or even for the mobile devices. Apple may have non-competitive interest in hiring A123 employees and that would NOT cause Yellow-Dog clause issues for those employees. Apple may be settling this lawsuit for privacy and secrecy reasons having to do with what they are really working on, which may have to be disclosed if the case goes to discovery or trial. — PING!

Apple Car or Apple Battery efficiency?
Ping!

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[Vince Ferrer]

Great, a car with a battery that can’t be replaced. You just have to get a new car every two years.

[Swordmaker]

kinda did that way back at the get go. xerox parc.

What you're implying, simply didn't happen. This Xerox canard gets real old. Xerox's Management was in complete agreement with the PARC visit by Steve Jobs and his engineers. Xerox got 100,000 Shares of Pre-IPO Apple common stock (later sold for over $16 million after the iPO) in exchange for those two visits in which the Apple people were not allowed to take any notes, take no code, or any photographs, but were allowed to ask questions and learn what they could from the PARC people. Apple developed their GUI and system entirely independently. . . and licensed the Mouse concept from Douglas Engelbart at Stanford University's Stanford Research Institute but who also pioneered most of the GUI concepts, but Apple developed their own mouse.

[ckilmer]

Tesla is a brave and visionary company. But Apple is something very different.

The difference between Apple and every other company in the world is that Apple has $178 billion in cash available for its ventures—as of 2014. http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/28/investing/apple-cash-178-billion/

Their brand appeal is so powerful that they can make a watch that sells out on preorder while being extremely profitable.
.............
Apple Watch Sales Figures: 3 Million Devices Pre-Ordered, $2 Billion In Revenue
By Zayed Rehman | April 20th, 2015
http://www.redmondpie.com/apple-watch-sales-figures-3-million-devices-preordered-2-billion-in-revenue/
................
Apple is making a profit of 264.30 USD on each watch. Their profit on preorder is already 792,900,000
http://www.tech-to-date.com/apple-watch-is-the-highly-profitable-product-for-apple/

Now consider what Apple will do to the car market when they enter.

Profound change is coming to the energy world. With apple now the question is when that change is coming.

[Swordmaker]

Great, a car with a battery that can’t be replaced. You just have to get a new car every two years.

Also a myth.

[ckilmer]

• Apple and Tesla are locked in a battle for talent, with Apple offering $250,000 signing bonuses to engineers.
• There is a secretive Apple development facility in Cupertino, California, Apple Insider found, which includes an "auto work area" and a "repair garage."
• Mysterious vans with mounted cameras registered to Apple have been sighted across America, with speculation as to their purpose ranging from mapping software to self-driving car technology.
• Apple is also hiring robotics engineers to work "in a unique development team."
• Citing "a person familiar with its work," The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has hundreds of people working on Project Titan, though the electric car will not come to the market for years. It's allegedly led by VP Steve Zadesky — a veteran of Ford.
• The Apple Car has been common knowledge for months in certain tech circles, according to Bryan Chaffin from The Mac Observer, who says "a lot of people at the top in Silicon Valley consider it a given that Apple is working on a car."
• Apple design chief Jony Ive has been complaining about American cars for years.
• An Apple employee reached out to us to tell us the company is working on something that will "give Tesla a run for its money."
• Cook said in an interview last year that "there are products we're working on that no one knows about."
• The late Apple cofounder and CEO Steve Jobs always wanted to build a car, telling The New York Times before he died "that if he had more energy, he would have liked to take on Detroit with an Apple car."

[AFreeBird]

With technology expanding at an almost ex potential rate; backward compatibility is a difficult thing.

They’ll keep it up as long as is feasible, but eventually, they have to let go of the old. That screwed MS, kept them in the past instead of looking forward.

[ThomasThomas]

I can’t believe all the nay sayers here. This is proof, obviously they are finally building the flying car.

[Talisker]

Apple developed their GUI and system entirely independently...

LOL, "entirely"?! You just explained how they went and studied PARC!

[Swordmaker]

I am aware of those articles. . . but I still maintain that Apple will not be building their own batteries. They will probably engineer their batteries as they have done for the new MacBook, increasing the density of storage and custom designing the shape and fit in the available space inside the case to maximize the available power for time and usage. BUT, Apple does not make those batteries they designed. They contract that work to companies who have the expertise to make batteries. Why re-invent the wheel when there are excellent wheel makers out there that have the capacity to do it already?

Apple often invents the machinery to MAKE the devices they design, but they do not want to manufacture those devices, manage the assembly lines, etc. There are companies whose field of expertise is exactly that. Apple knows this and lets them do what they do best.

Therefore, Apple may employ an engineer who has expertise in Battery design who can get the most density into the smallest package possible. . . but I sincerely doubt it will be so that Apple can start a line of Apple branded car batteries. I would be more expecting that the batteries designed by this engineer might be contracted to A123 or other companies for them to make for Apple to Apple's design and specifications. That would mean the yellow dog, non-compete clause would not be binding on the engineer. . . and those clauses are hard to enforce anyway.

I do not put much credence in rumors where Apple is concerned anymore. Too many of them have turned into smoke and nothing. It may be that Apple is going to make a car, or it may be something entirely different with the car a red herring . . .

[Swordmaker]

The difference between Apple and every other company in the world is that Apple has $178 billion in cash available for its ventures—as of 2014. http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/28/investing/apple-cash-178-billion/

It is over $200 billion now and growing.

[Swordmaker]

LOL, "entirely"?! You just explained how they went and studied PARC!

And Apple and Xerox's solutions to GUI's bear very little similarity to each other. It is only people who are not familiar with both who seem to think they are alike. They aren't.

What you see is parallel development from similar roots from Doug Engelbart's work at SRI. . . and the Apple employees who came from PARC who made a conscious effort not to duplicate anything from Xerox in Apple's GUI. Yes, they both have windows, but they are implemented quit differently with completely different abilities. Active Icons, Apple. Drag and Drop, Apple, Drop down Menus, Apple. Nested Contextual Menus, Apple. Trashcan Metaphor, Apple. Overlapping windows, Apple.

As i said, parallel development.