This seems completely backwards. In terms of its products, Apple is already essentially a luxury automobile manufacturer today, it just happens to be a luxury

This seems completely backwards. In terms of its products, Apple is already essentially a luxury automobile manufacturer today, it just happens to be a luxury auto manufacturer that makes laptops rather than cars. They make expensive, high grade physical products whose quality and status help people of means define their personal brands and lives in ways that bring joy and function. That's indistinguishable from the role of a BMW or Audi or etc. Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are all much better equipped and positioned to build amazing AI. It's that Jony Ives chassis, exterior, and interior that that would set the automotive industry on fire.