Posted on 02/14/2015 4:07:50 AM PST by shove_it
The smoke surrounding rumors of an Apple-branded vehicle has begun to thicken, as a new report says that Apple is indeed working on an all-electric vehicle that would take the shape of a minivan, with a huge team tasked to the project.
Apple has given the project codename "Titan," according to the Wall Street Journal. The company is said to have "several hundred" employees working in the group.
Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly green-lighted the project almost a year ago, and company executives have already begun to meet with potential contract manufacturers, including Canadian firm Magna Steyr. Apple iPod and iPhone designer Steve Zadesky, formerly of Ford, is said to be running the project.
The team — which has its own development facility away from the main Infinite Loop campus — could eventually swell to some 1,000 employees, and Zadesky has been given free reign to pull talent from any existing Apple group. Zadesky's group is reportedly researching "robotics, metals and materials consistent with automobile manufacturing."
The Journal's report follows hours after a similar missive from the Financial Times, which revealed a "top-secret research lab" staffed with automotive executives. Among those who have made the move is former Mercedes-Benz R&D head Johann Jungwirth, who joined Apple as a Mac systems engineering leader last fall.
Apple design chief Jony Ive is believed to have been personally recruiting automotive executives. Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed earlier that Apple has tried "very hard" to poach engineers from the electric carmaker, offering $250,000 bonuses and 60 percent pay raises.
Rumors of an Apple-branded vehicle have been around for years, but began to gather steam when Apple was revealed as the company behind a fleet of mysterious sensor-laden vans which have appeared around the U.S. in recent months. Those vans, which are almost certainly designed for data collection to augment Apple's mapping service, are unlikely to be directly related to any potential vehicle project, which is likely years away from production.
I’m going to challenge you to say, out loud, the solution to the problem. Repeat after me: “LET’S REDUCE THE CORPORATE TAX RATE TO 0% AND SLASH RED TAPE IN THE USA, IN ORDER TO ATTRACT FIRMS TO COME HERE.”
Are you willing to say that? If not, then you are just a whiner and you really are part of the problem, whether you admit it or not.
music player - music became digital and the player was the revenue generator.
online music store - digital music sales became the revenue generator.
a cellular phone - really a smart phone (computer that also was a phone) the hardware was the revenue generator until the App Store gathered steam.
credit card payment systems - people wanting the convenience of the smart phone allowing payment will be one source of revenue, with others developing. Remember that all credit card charges are digital. So digital shopping, digital payment, digit smart phone.
Watch - I'm not sold on this one.... will have to see how this one pans out.
2016, a car is far afield from - what is the revenue flow from digital hardware or software (includes music, shopping or any other thing which can be digitized) in the car market? Apple does not recreate the wheel, they either create a new wheel so to speak or vastly improve an existing product.
Great feedback from everyone on this topic. We all will be guessing until Apple surprise all of us, but we all will have fun trying to figure out the plan!
Whew~ That's a relief. Wouldn't want to have to buy an airline ticket to your funeral. Waste of carbon credits. LOL!
I don’t even like having animated conversations in the car with other people. I tell them to leave me out of the conversation.
Absolutely great points. . . but I remember the contemporaneous naysayers at each of the nexuses. . . all saying the same thing: this move is outside of Apple's core competence. They'll never succeed. For example:
"Responding to questions from New York Times correspondent (Palm CEO) John Markoff at a Churchill Club breakfast gathering Thursday morning, Colligan laughed off the idea that any company — including the wildly popular Apple Computer — could easily win customers in the finicky smart-phone sector.“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” he said. “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
Try parking it at home depot.
Electric may be the future but I’m 56 so I’ll never see an electric vehicle that can touch my Titan.
If I were to and it had an apple logo I still wouldn’t buy it. Some people are fanboys and some of aren’t.
There are govt mandates in California and the northeast states for numbers zero emission vehicles that must be sold as a percentage of the total market. This number increases over time. There are also significant federal and state subsidies for purchasing these vehicles.
That’s the only reason Tesla is in business and I suspect Apple has figured this out also.
You said, “If I were to and it had an apple logo I still wouldn’t buy it.”
I think you’re confusing a logo with a product that works well with a very large segment of the market.
You see, I don’t worry about the logo that is on the product, but whether it is a good product, it works well, has good customer service, has a good warranty, and I am pleased with using it (in a functional manner).
NOW ... Apple could change their logo tomorrow, and next week all their products could have a logo that shows a picture of the “man in the moon” ... AND ... I would still buy the same product, even though the logo was different and didn’t look like an Apple logo.
The real issue here is the PRODUCT and not the logo!
I think I know why this rumor has been "leaked!" It's to get Samssung.
I recall the last time Apple had a rumor such as this. . . it was that Apple was thinking about a watch. This was about three years ago and suddenly Samsung announced they were going to come out with a . . . wait for it . . . a Samsung Watch. They even hinted that Apple was stealing the idea from them!
Just wait, about a month from now there will be an announcement of the new Samsung Galaxy Car. . . Bigger windshield and steering wheel, and it will have a picnic table, and a hot tub built in, and will sell for half the price of what Apple will probably sell the Apple iCar for.
Over the years I have found not to do a project based on tax or other government incentives, they have a habit of disappearing.
Yes, but we've been over this several times before. You have no ideas on how to achieve this goal, nor do you seem to understand anything about business or economics.
So, it doesn't matter how much you believe or care, it's simply mindless bleating without a proactive agenda.
It is the same thing I've pointed out with government created jobs. When the government funding goes away, so do the jobs. However, when you invest in infrastructure that creates jobs, plant, equipment, etc., they will remain and the investors will want them to be working for them. The will be put to work. . . and that means the jobs will remain. Government funded jobs are ephemeral. investment funded jobs have a far better chance of being permanent.
We called bullshit on Obama's claims of creating thousands of jobs when they counted every temp worker they hired for the census as being a new job created.
Show me how those construction workers would have jobs if Apple would NOT be building. This is a recession. Nobody is building. They would be idle if it were not for Apple building. While they are working, they are full time jobs. Apple has construction plans for the foreseeable future.
I don't have to, one of the political parties is going to pick up on it soon. The draining will stop and Apple will be fine using US labor.
It’s about labor you disingenuous fool, not materiels.
BS. Maybe double to $60/unit labor. Those thing fly off the shelf. US workers are more productive and you can eliminate most shipping costs with on shored manufacturing. Think of the wealth creation with the factory onshored in a R-T-W state. All of the supporting businesses and services. Importing and retailing does not create wealth except for the few.
You are an anti US worker bigot. You want the US to be punished, like Obama. You two are the same in this regard.
Marx was a free trader, like you.
The real issue here is MY opinion. It means ever so much more to me than yours does.
It is a shame if my opinion puts Apple out of business but once again it is MY opinion.
I don’t care for Microsoft much either.
I also think Gov’t Motors and Ford trucks suck. Is it okay with apple if I don’t like these companies too?
Finally, I don’t care for cars either so I will stick with my Titan truck.
One can’t have one’s own facts but at least for now in America one can have one’s own opinion.
I am a stubborn man and you have just lowered apple in my eyes and I wasn’t sure that was possible. Now I refuse to even eat a Granny Smith apple.
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