Apple's secret car team tosses keys to Lamborghini lead Apple's poorly-kept-secret automobile project is reportedly getting an injection of exotic car know-how from a 20-year Lamborghini veteran. The Cupertino biz has reportedly recruited Luigi Taraborrelli, most recently the head of chassis and vehicle dynamics R&D at Lamborghini, to lead design of its rumored self-driving …
Yeah, but each will also have a notch.
Also, the driving computer will just need programming with your destination which, as it will use Apple Maps, means that you will arrive at the correct place only 97% of the time - those finding themselves in the remaining 3% will never be found again. Manual operation will occasionally throw up the error message: "You are driving it wrong" but won't elaborate any further on that. Internally, none of the USB connectors will be compatible with anything of non-Apple manufacture.
Venting windows will not be an option. You might think you need or want to be able to open the windows, but that's just because you're trapped in assumptions based on current designs.
The entertainment system will only stream iTunes. That's for your protection.
There will be no physical controls, just an enormous touchscreen.
"Apple could start off by designing a Tractor."
Apple can design anything they want, but who would buy an Apple tractor? You think John Deere has issues with people working on their own kit? Not even the big corporate farms would buy Apple tractors. Far too much money, with no assurance that I can get the crop in on time, and under budget.
Same for cars, BTW ... can you imagine the hardware mark-up on a tesla-esque Applemobile? Would probably cost twice as much, if not more, for similar performance (batteries and motors and tires and suspension can only be pushed so far). ... and likely be equally hum-drum in the looks department.
But an Applemobile would be in the same class as the remainder of their products, and incidentally the same class as a Lamborghini - it's a Velben good. You don't buy it because you need it, nor because it's the most economical way to get something you need; you buy it so you can demonstrate that you've got it.
ITYM “Veblen good”. Definition for anyone who isn’t familiar with the term.
- ThunderPark charging port reaches full range in 4 hours
- 26 speaker Bluetooth sound system, each speaker operating for up to 4 hours on a charge
- Fully autonomous self driving meeting all iRoad regulations (not for public roads)
- Front grill features a smug grin
- 1600 HP, 0-60 MPH in 10 seconds
- 0.25 G maximum lateral force for smoothest and safest driving
- No clutter of doors, windows, buttons, steering wheel, or pillars. Just one big Gorilla Glass capsule.
- No turn signals. It's time to leave those in the past.
- 20 colors of silicone bumpers to chose from
- Water resistant (water voids warranty)
- Safely limits top speed to 15 MPH if unauthorized tires or windshield wipers are detected
- Siri will tell you if you're there yet
- 90 day warranty
- 2 year Apple Care available
> - 20 colors of silicone bumpers to chose from
Nice, but ITYM “car will be made entirely of Gorilla Glass and magnesium alloy and will look exquisite, but will scratch and chip as soon as you drive through a light drizzle, so at a very reasonable cost Apple will sell you their own or 3rd-party silicone car-brascorsets that will protect the bodywork at the cost of making your exquisite new vehicle about 2x the size and resembling a hideous safety concept car from the 1970s”
Adding more "management" with expertise in hand made, high performance, low reliability cars doesn't make much sense. As Apple has money to incinerate, I supposed they can afford it, but why wouldn't they be looking for people that can design for manufacturability in quantity?
I still don't see why Apple wants to make a car. It's a horribly low profit margin industry. They are much better off supplying software to the auto industries. There is already a crowd of expensive EVs cluttering up the top end of the market all trying to out-do each other with more and more useless "features". Do people really want to be sat face to face with others in the car? How many autos have more than 2 people inside that really want to have a chat? It's likely just because I'm old that I don't find having high speed internet and voice commands all that useful. I also drive by myself most of the time as I am self-employed and don't have a family. The few features I find useful are overwhelmed by the 100's that lose their shine a day after they are learned. Something like those video effects that were in camcorders when they first came out. You played with them for a day or two and then never again. As an aside, I still have 8mm film from when I was a kid, but we don't seem to have kept any of the videos from the camcorder era. Not that they would be playable on anything these days.
I'd rather see Apple spending money on a vigorous R&D lab than getting into cars. So much of what has made Apple has been by hiring good engineers and designers and turning them loose with a decent budget so Steve could go around and pick out the couple of things that really had legs. Tim doesn't have the knack for that and just seems focused on yet another model of iPhone that's pretty much the same as the last version released 6 months before.
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