3 ms·

> Very few people were willing to pay £600+ for a phone pre-iphone, but plenty of people do now. That doesn't really translate. Most people are "willing" to pa

> Very few people were willing to pay £600+ for a phone pre-iphone, but plenty of people do now. That doesn't really translate. Most people are "willing" to pay that because most carriers offer 24 month financing. A high end luxury car is going to be, at the low end $50K. Probably more towards $100K. You don't get interest free installment plans for $100K cars, and most people simply cannot afford them. There's plenty of appeal to current high end luxury cars but how are the sales of Model S P85s or higher (picking it as the most "hyped"), even compared to the 3.

ethbr0 6y ago
The only feasible route to this is if Apple sold a car that allowed for increased utilization. (E.g. person-in-car 95% of the time vs 5% of the time) If it were providing value more of the time, it could cost more and still be worth the increase in price. But I don't see any path that gets there without a self-driving singularity to allow for humanless valet movement between "users." Maybe remotely operated human valet service, but that seems like an ugly rabbit hole? And that still leaves the fact that luxury users aren't going to be okay with ketchup stains and odors from the last user... iTaxi as a social platform starts to get more plausible. But that's more along the lines of a bus-van-social network hybrid. "Travel only with other vetted, high-net-worth Apple users" is an interesting twist, as well as a direct stab at Facebook and Microsoft (LinkedIn).
- nicoburns 6y ago
  > But I don't see any path that gets there without a self-driving singularity to allow for humanless valet movement between "users." Is self-driving really that unlikely? It probably won't be ready for another 10 years, but Apple probably won't be looking to launch this until then either.

3 ms·

> Very few people were willing to pay £600+ for a phone pre-iphone, but plenty of people do now. That doesn't really translate. Most people are "willing" to pa

by FireBeyond 6y ago

ethbr0 6y ago
The only feasible route to this is if Apple sold a car that allowed for increased utilization. (E.g. person-in-car 95% of the time vs 5% of the time) If it were providing value more of the time, it could cost more and still be worth the increase in price. But I don't see any path that gets there without a self-driving singularity to allow for humanless valet movement between "users." Maybe remotely operated human valet service, but that seems like an ugly rabbit hole? And that still leaves the fact that luxury users aren't going to be okay with ketchup stains and odors from the last user... iTaxi as a social platform starts to get more plausible. But that's more along the lines of a bus-van-social network hybrid. "Travel only with other vetted, high-net-worth Apple users" is an interesting twist, as well as a direct stab at Facebook and Microsoft (LinkedIn).
- nicoburns 6y ago
  > But I don't see any path that gets there without a self-driving singularity to allow for humanless valet movement between "users." Is self-driving really that unlikely? It probably won't be ready for another 10 years, but Apple probably won't be looking to launch this until then either.