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Comment by blazespin | Hacker News Reader

Not at all. By the time Apple gets any traction, this indeed may be the reality.

That being said, people will always want to travel in style, whether they own the car or not. Think black car versus beaten up taxi. Apple wants to be the luxury brand intersected with technology. Who else does that as well as they do?

Also, as per below, Apple's model of making things which can't be serviced by the owner fits the idea of no ownership.

Finally, this new business model is going to obliterate all the old car makers that can't evolve fast enough. When significant disruption vectors clearly exist that can only be leveraged by the extremely well capitalized... well, this is really a no brainer for Apple.

The only really question is, can Tim Cook create the tech? Google is struggling with it and they are by far the most skillful at AI.

In the end though, we'll all be better off with Apple in the race than out of it.

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Apple wants to be the luxury brand intersected with technology. Who else does that as well as they do?

Honestly, in terms of car manufacturers, I think there are a lot who do luxury better than Apple. Agreed their technology intersection isn't so great, but I'd rather own a BMW outfitted with Apple software than an Apple car.

Maybe the Apple car will be a BMW outfitted with Apple software. Tim Cook visited BMW premises last year, allegedly there has been at least another visit from an Apple delegation since then.

That makes a lot of sense. It also makes sense that Apple would start out there.

...just like the Motorola ROKR

in terms of car manufacturers, I think there are a lot who do luxury better than Apple.

What does that even mean? Are you from the future?

Apple has a brand. I can imagine that brand applied to a car.

I think that sounds like a good idea, but in practice it's not a product you'd want.

Motorola used to be at the cutting edge of phones (e.g. Razr) but when Apple slapped their software onto a Motorola phone, it was a terrible product (Rokr).

You know, the same can be said for Tesla, which has a massive headstart in disrupting the car market. The main difference, is that Apple has much MUCH deeper pockets to draw from.

I'm still confused as to why Apple hasn't considered purchasing Tesla.

Maybe they have and Elon won't sell.

I'm sure this must have come up, but the two companies have pretty different manufacturing styles, and integrating them could kill the momentum needed to pull this off. Unless Apple is willing to use Tesla's US operations for version 1 and re-evaluate after that.

My take would be that Musk simply wouldn't sell. We know that they have spoken, and that Apple is an investor in the Gigafactory, so regardless, they'll be paying Tesla for iDevice batteries in the long run.

Competing against them on a car is a really interesting play though. Not sure what to make of it just yet.

For a long time I thought the Apple va Android rivalry was invented by the two companies so that all the press would be about them, rather than Microsoft being given the default position as the incumbent.

I think I was overestimating them, but once again think that's a feasible strategy, Tesla vs Apple fanbois arguing on the internet could be the best thing to ever happen to all-electric vehicles, and leave petrol and hybrid cars looking archaic, rather than the current paradigm where its Tesla vs the old industry.

Apple is getting more into services with Apple Music, so maybe Apple Car as an automated car service isn't so unreasonable.

they are by far the most skillful at AI.

I'd submit they are the best at getting people to believe they are the best, but are they _actually_ the best? Assumes facts not in evidence.

What services backed by A.I. would contend with Google's?

I don't think Tim Cook can create the tech.

Tim Cook can't even keep apps made with hacked versions of Xcode out of the app store. He can't keep obvious, infuriating bugs out of iOS or OS X. (I found a few within hours of downloading the public release.)

A self-driving car would be - to mix a metaphor - a legal minefield, and would demand a level of corporate and personal responsibility and reliability that only a handful of organisations, most in med or aerospace, have ever been able to approach.

As a project it's almost literally a moon shot, and a very risky one because industrial car making is a difficult industry with problematic tooling, logistics, and distribution, and very high capital costs.

I think Musk is in with a better chance, because he's a careful, thoughtful, engineer. At Apple, engineering has always had trailed slightly behind branding and design, and the gap seems to be widening. That doesn't bode well, because a project like this needs world-leading engineering before everything else.

Design and marketing are worthless if the product isn't seven or eight-nines reliable and better than human.

Reminder: companies aren't just the CEO.

As a project it's almost literally a moon shot,

Not even close. Tesla exists. They built a new car infrastructure from nothing. Apple can steal their senior engineers all day long.

if the product isn't seven or eight-nines reliable and better than human.

People are influenced by style and sex appeal, not so much data sheets. Nobody even knows how much memory ships in Apple iOS devices; it's not a performance game—it's a mindshare game.

But he's not talking about the performance of the car, rather its reliability. And an unreliable car is flagged as such pretty soon.

I agree, I have concern about Apple's technical chops. That being said, they are masters of the aquihire.

Also - you have to separate electric car versus self driving car. I think electric car is pretty easy to do (relatively speaking), but I don't think it's a particularly exciting business to get into. Way too low margin and you're fighting against an establishment that will getting into the electric car biz as well. And I agree with comments above, that they all probably do better than Apple.

Whereas self driving cars, done right, will be extremely high margin. It will revolutionize the world and change everything - much like the PC and Smartphone did.

I think self driving cars have the potential to be iPhone versus Android all over again. Apple does the high end luxury market, and Google does the race to bottom, solution for the proletariat market.

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