4 ms·

> But building a car is complicated and Apple has struggled to define a differentiated vision for its vehicle, these people said. Some of the automobile industr

by csours 10y ago

> But building a car is complicated and Apple has struggled to define a differentiated vision for its vehicle, these people said. Some of the automobile industry veterans have clashed with longtime company employees on how best to proceed.

astrodust 10y ago
Conflict can be a good thing in this case. Instead of Apple running off and doing the "Apple thing" which isn't grounded, they get pulled back in by veterans. Likewise, veterans have their assumptions challenged.
- csours 10y ago
  Agreed, it will be very interesting to see if "Apple Scale" [1] thinking works in automotive design[2] and manufacturing. Apple can buy 10,000 CNC machines for an iPhone frame, but there are a couple thousand parts at least that size in a car. The difference in physical scale between a phone and a car should not be dismissed... but I'm very interested to see what comes out of the process. 1. https://blog.bolt.io/no-you-cant-manufacture-that-like-apple-does-93bea02a3bbf#.smhful8w4 https://blog.bolt.io/no-you-cant-manufacture-that-like-apple... 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjcm-ru-9iI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjcm-ru-9iI (this talk is good, but incredibly frustrating because the slides aren't shown)
  - semi-extrinsic 10y ago
    There is also a big difference in the importance of reliability. Half the people I see with iPhones older than a year have broken screens. But with a car, you can't engineer it to last for two years and then expect the owner to scrap it and buy a new one. For all the talk of AR, shiny UX etc, keep in mind that a car has to retain at least some resale value for at least ten years, preferrably closer to twenty. Otherwise you'll be left with a lot of angry customers. Planned obsolesence is out of the question.
    - rodgerd 10y ago
      This is true - secondary markets can make a huge difference in how affordable a car is perceived to be. Cars which are considered to have a long life command a high resale value, which cuts the real cost of buying new.
  - astrodust 10y ago
    Apple's ability to put together a supply chain and get the right partners in place is not to be underestimated. The logistics of building a car are surely harder by orders of magnitude, you can't just FedEx cars around like you can crates of watch parts, but I'm sure there's a team that can execute at this level within Apple. If I were GM, Ford or any other big vendor I'd keep a close eye on the supply chain for industry robots. When Apple makes a move they're probably going to buy up a year's supply of these.

by csours 10y ago

astrodust 10y ago

Conflict can be a good thing in this case. Instead of Apple running off and doing the "Apple thing" which isn't grounded, they get pulled back in by veterans. Likewise, veterans have their assumptions challenged.

csours 10y ago
Agreed, it will be very interesting to see if "Apple Scale" [1] thinking works in automotive design[2] and manufacturing. Apple can buy 10,000 CNC machines for an iPhone frame, but there are a couple thousand parts at least that size in a car. The difference in physical scale between a phone and a car should not be dismissed... but I'm very interested to see what comes out of the process. 1. https://blog.bolt.io/no-you-cant-manufacture-that-like-apple-does-93bea02a3bbf#.smhful8w4 https://blog.bolt.io/no-you-cant-manufacture-that-like-apple... 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjcm-ru-9iI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjcm-ru-9iI (this talk is good, but incredibly frustrating because the slides aren't shown)
- semi-extrinsic 10y ago
  There is also a big difference in the importance of reliability. Half the people I see with iPhones older than a year have broken screens. But with a car, you can't engineer it to last for two years and then expect the owner to scrap it and buy a new one. For all the talk of AR, shiny UX etc, keep in mind that a car has to retain at least some resale value for at least ten years, preferrably closer to twenty. Otherwise you'll be left with a lot of angry customers. Planned obsolesence is out of the question.
  - rodgerd 10y ago
    This is true - secondary markets can make a huge difference in how affordable a car is perceived to be. Cars which are considered to have a long life command a high resale value, which cuts the real cost of buying new.
- astrodust 10y ago
  Apple's ability to put together a supply chain and get the right partners in place is not to be underestimated. The logistics of building a car are surely harder by orders of magnitude, you can't just FedEx cars around like you can crates of watch parts, but I'm sure there's a team that can execute at this level within Apple. If I were GM, Ford or any other big vendor I'd keep a close eye on the supply chain for industry robots. When Apple makes a move they're probably going to buy up a year's supply of these.