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Comment by ssharp | Hacker News Reader

It's interesting to see new entries into such an established and manufacturing-heavy industry. Tesla had a fairly slow and methodical strategy, that they're still executing on before they can really hit a mass audience (I'd say the Model 3 is the next evolution in that). Apple has not, at least since Jobs took over again, really been slow and methodical in entering big markets. However, with the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, they were the first to try and align those device types with a mass audience that hadn't really been addressed yet. With cars, that audience has been well addressed for over a century!

I'm curious to find out what price range Apple is coming in at, what makes the Apple car better than alternatives, and how/where they're going to manufacture it at a cost similar to competitors.

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One guess about what the car could offer: The main issue with current technologies is that they only drive automatically in specific situations - and that they legally require you to always stay alert and don't let you play with your phone , etc. But this is extremely boring , hence hard. So this reduces a lot of the value of half-automated driving.

But let's say we have a fun interesting friend in the car, talking to us whenever we want, but knows when to shut up or to simplify the conversation when the road demands more of our focus.

Suddenly half-automated driving becomes much more valuable. And possibly ,if you control that and have a large customer base with half-automated cars ,you have a very good path to full self driving.

Well, Apple wants Siri to be that friend.

I would guess they're specifically targeting the brand new market of autonomous cars specifically.

Edit: Nevermind, it sounds like it will not be autonomous starting out, so they really are entering the mainstream car market.

Maybe the same thing is happening that happened with phones: Apple software on other phones sucked, just like Apple software in existing cars sucks. It's ambitious, but they have the resources and the market is clearly ripe for disruption... why not.

> Apple has not, at least since Jobs took over again, really been slow and methodical in entering big markets.

Depends on how you look at it:

- They've been fairly slow to enter the TV market.

- Homekit is out there but hasn't received a lot of attention in recent keynotes.

- Healthkit and related medical technology isn't something they have been extremely quick on.

How about "Methodical and successful"

That was an inclusive "and". I think that by "slow and methodical", the author was going for the tank approach rather than just slow like a slug, which doesn't do much good.

You're right about these. I think the distinction I should have made was about how much effort they put into the different products. I think the three you mention have not have a ton of Apple's resources put into them like their other products. If they're going to actually produce a car from soup to nuts, there is no real way to half-ass that like they have the TV.

I really doubt Apple is going to build a full car. I'd imagine they are going to slap an Apple interior on an existing Toyota or Ford platform.

Really? That wouldn't be very Apple-like.

I could see them potentially working with BMW though.

Mercedes would be my bet, luxury brand, steeped in history and tech long before the BMW ix series.

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