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> I'm not sure what Apple would bring to cars The world's first non-repairable car. Minor fault, major accident, or inevitably-degraded battery? No problem!, j

> I'm not sure what Apple would bring to cars The world's first non-repairable car. Minor fault, major accident, or inevitably-degraded battery? No problem!, just throw it away and buy the latest model, like you would with a phone or tablet! You wanted an upgrade anyway, didn't you? (Meanwhile, Apple will keep boasting about their green credentials...) What about consumables?... You'll still be able to change the tyres, brake bads, and wiper blades. But Apple will take 30% from every sale/service of these items, and the vehicle won't start if you install non-genuine-Apple replacements. (And then there's the chargers... don't expect to be able to put electricity into that battery without Apple getting their god-given 30% cut) Starting at $99,999 for the base model (50 miles range). A maxxed-out model will do 750 miles, but they're really going to make you pay for those battery up-sells, and the well-glued-in battery pack is non-upgradeable after purchase.

BoostandEthanol 3y ago
They wouldn’t be the first. The Audi A2 launched without a bonnet you could open. Oil changes were done using a hatch in the grille.
- bobthepanda 3y ago
  Also it seems like a lot of the new EVs have sky high repair bills, like the infamous $42,000 Rivian fender bender repair. https://www.theautopian.com/heres-why-that-rivian-r1t-repair-cost-42000-after-just-a-minor-fender-bender/ https://www.theautopian.com/heres-why-that-rivian-r1t-repair... So if you're going to have minor bumps result in a repair bill more expensive than many cars, it's not that much of a stretch to say that'd make it virtually unrepairable.
- red369 3y ago
  Interesting! But may have actually not have been sealed. The Wikipedia page says: “ The bonnet was widely rumoured to be sealed – Car and Driver wrote: "...feature of the A2 that may foretell the future: the sealed hood". Actually, the bonnet is easily removed, being held in place by two twist-lock catches. The bonnet, weighing 8 kg, then comes away from the car altogether, unlike the usual hinged flip-up arrangement on most other cars. Due to the service hatch, the bonnet does not need to be removed frequently for access to the engine.”
solatic 3y ago
Nobody will ever need to drive further than 640,000 yards!
- surfingdino 3y ago
  ... without subscription.
  - behnamoh 3y ago
    Imagine having to renew your subscription to finish your long travel and there's no internet in the middle of the road!
    - jes5199 3y ago
      this is the Tesla/SpaceX synergy. Apple needs to start a rocketry program or it’s gonna fall behind on the software subscription market
      - behnamoh 3y ago
        Or you know, stop subscription plans and replace them with traditional payments?
bdcravens 3y ago
Rivian isn't far behind, with basic body work costing tens of thousands of dollars https://www.autoblog.com/2023/10/04/rivian-r1t-fender-benders-can-turn-into-40k-repair-bills/ https://www.autoblog.com/2023/10/04/rivian-r1t-fender-bender...
- plagiarist 3y ago
  Rivian base models are already far out of my price range for a vehicle, this is not helping their case any.
  - Animats 3y ago
    Rivian is considered to be in the "hyper-luxury truck" category.
    - OJFord 3y ago
      Aren't they cheaper than the Ford F150 'Lightning' (electric version, so comparable)? Or is that also 'hyper-luxury'? (Genuine question, I suppose I'm not really familiar enough to know what the top end would be, maybe that's it, I know Lamborgini makes a tractor, but I'm not aware of a 'supertruck'.)
      - _ea1k 3y ago
        A Rivian R1T with dual motor and the large battery pack (352 mile range) is $79,000. An F-150 Lightning with the extended range battery (>300 mile range) is between $69k and $77k. Both have cheaper trims available, but the cheapest Lightning is significantly less expensive than the cheapest R1T. Both are really nice trucks too, especially at the higher trim. I don't see a big difference in luxury between an F-150 Platinum and the R1T.
        OJFord 3y ago
        Ah ok, I had them the wrong way around then (I didn't mean much cheaper), but pretty comparable - if you were in the market you might probably be looking at both. But it's all subjective I suppose, maybe they meant that either would be 'hyper-luxury', I'm not that familiar, I just thought F150s were quite commonplace. (Not here in the UK, no such trucks are, but from what I've seen in North America.)
pityJuke 3y ago
In-app purchase on your iPhone while inside the car? Surely they've got to take 60% for that, for also facilitating the space you're sititng in.
- juunpp 3y ago
  Tim Sweeney is reading this comment from the dashboard in his Toyota.
  - moogly 3y ago
    Sweeney is a Lambo guy, though.
    - juunpp 3y ago
      That's just for the PR, though. He's digging the repairability and serviceability of his Toyota.
rollcat 3y ago
> The world's first non-repairable car. Apple's phones have about 7 years of first-party support / guaranteed useful life, compared with the rest of the industry's standard of maybe 2. Yeah I'd never buy a car that will only be good for 7 years, but let's see what they ship.
- fortran77 3y ago
  > compared with the rest of the industry's standard of maybe 2. You're just making up facts to protect your beloved brand/cult. C'mon. All my non-Mac computers I'm using here have been around way longer than two years.
  - the_gastropod 3y ago
    You're talking about different things. Apple officially supports / provides software updates for its iPhones for 7 years. Other phone manufacturers' durations of support vary, but they're usually much less. Until fairly recently, Google provided 3 years of software updates for Pixels, for example. [1] [1] https://www.androidauthority.com/phone-update-policies-1658633/ https://www.androidauthority.com/phone-update-policies-16586...
    - int_19h 3y ago
      Samsung accounts for the vast majority of Android phones in actual use. Their current policy is also 7 years, as is Google's. You're right that historically this was different, but things change.
  - spiderice 3y ago
    You refer to your smart phone as a non-mac computer? Because nobody is talking about Mac's besides you. Or PC's. Or "computers" outside of smart phones in general.
  - rollcat 3y ago
    > You're just making up facts [...] Here's objective facts and my experiences that I used to draw my conclusions. My final Android phones were: [1] a Samsung A7 (2017), which included a non-replaceable battery, shipped with Android 6 (2015), officially supported Android 8 (2017; theoretical first-party security patches which it never received were offered until 2021), no longer receives updates even from LineageOS, and never ran postmarketOS; and [2] a Nokia 3 (2017), which had pretty much the same story (support ended on Android 9). In 2019, someone gave me an old, smashed [3] iPhone 7 (2016), and the phone literally worked better than any Android phone I've owned before, including either of the two above. Since it was already physically falling apart, I took the liberty of getting [4] an iPhone SE (2020), which is still with me; the 7 continued to serve in the family for a couple more years. [1]: https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_a7_(2017)-8335.php https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_a7_(2017)-8335.php [2]: https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_3-8572.php https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_3-8572.php [3]: https://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_7-8064.php https://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_7-8064.php [4]: https://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_se_(2020)-10170.php https://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_se_(2020)-10170.php > All my non-Mac computers I'm using here have been around way longer than two years. I have a 2002 TiBook, which, believe me or not, continues to outlive my T61 and X200. My MBP (2017) had a spicy pillow though (which Apple repaired for free, outside of warranty). > [...] to protect your beloved brand/cult. I'm not a cultist, I'm a pragmatist. I used to believe in things - I had a [5] Jolla (2013) for the longest time, because I believed in Free Software and Open Source and all that stuff, until I realized suffering for your values is not necessarily the healthiest thing to do, and that freedom is not strictly a function of a software license, but of things the hardware+software enables you to do with it. [5]: https://www.gsmarena.com/jolla_jolla-review-1025.php https://www.gsmarena.com/jolla_jolla-review-1025.php
Ankaios 3y ago
The world's first non-repairable car. Minor fault, major accident, or inevitably-degraded battery? No problem!, just throw it away and buy the latest model, like you would with a phone or tablet! You wanted an upgrade anyway, didn't you? No big deal. Just buy the AppleCar AppleCare plan.
- dmix 3y ago
  The idea of having your car replaced on the spot because it has a minor problem that can't be fixed quickly does sound nice.
jccalhoun 3y ago
The only problem is to charge the car you have to turn it upside down because the charge port is on the bottom.
- smackeyacky 3y ago
  And lie down in the back seat so you can make a side-talkin’ phone call
- jes5199 3y ago
  it makes sense, you wouldn’t want to give people the impression that the car could still drive while it’s plugged in
bimguy 3y ago
I see that someone has worked at an AASP before. shudders I can imagine their online interactive training right now...
midtake 3y ago
In my limited experience the TCO for Apple computer products seems lower than equivalent PC products. A MacBook I can reasonably expect to stay in the same condition until like 7-10 years later. With a regular windows laptop the screen would be flickering, the keyboard would be worn down, and it would overheat intermittently. I can open my 2012 MacBook Air right now and expect it to work just fine.

BoostandEthanol 3y ago

They wouldn’t be the first. The Audi A2 launched without a bonnet you could open. Oil changes were done using a hatch in the grille.

bobthepanda 3y ago
Also it seems like a lot of the new EVs have sky high repair bills, like the infamous $42,000 Rivian fender bender repair. https://www.theautopian.com/heres-why-that-rivian-r1t-repair-cost-42000-after-just-a-minor-fender-bender/ https://www.theautopian.com/heres-why-that-rivian-r1t-repair... So if you're going to have minor bumps result in a repair bill more expensive than many cars, it's not that much of a stretch to say that'd make it virtually unrepairable.
red369 3y ago
Interesting! But may have actually not have been sealed. The Wikipedia page says: “ The bonnet was widely rumoured to be sealed – Car and Driver wrote: "...feature of the A2 that may foretell the future: the sealed hood". Actually, the bonnet is easily removed, being held in place by two twist-lock catches. The bonnet, weighing 8 kg, then comes away from the car altogether, unlike the usual hinged flip-up arrangement on most other cars. Due to the service hatch, the bonnet does not need to be removed frequently for access to the engine.”

solatic 3y ago

Nobody will ever need to drive further than 640,000 yards!

surfingdino 3y ago
... without subscription.
- behnamoh 3y ago
  Imagine having to renew your subscription to finish your long travel and there's no internet in the middle of the road!
  - jes5199 3y ago
    this is the Tesla/SpaceX synergy. Apple needs to start a rocketry program or it’s gonna fall behind on the software subscription market
    - behnamoh 3y ago
      Or you know, stop subscription plans and replace them with traditional payments?

bdcravens 3y ago

Rivian isn't far behind, with basic body work costing tens of thousands of dollars https://www.autoblog.com/2023/10/04/rivian-r1t-fender-benders-can-turn-into-40k-repair-bills/ https://www.autoblog.com/2023/10/04/rivian-r1t-fender-bender...

plagiarist 3y ago
Rivian base models are already far out of my price range for a vehicle, this is not helping their case any.
- Animats 3y ago
  Rivian is considered to be in the "hyper-luxury truck" category.
  - OJFord 3y ago
    Aren't they cheaper than the Ford F150 'Lightning' (electric version, so comparable)? Or is that also 'hyper-luxury'? (Genuine question, I suppose I'm not really familiar enough to know what the top end would be, maybe that's it, I know Lamborgini makes a tractor, but I'm not aware of a 'supertruck'.)
    - _ea1k 3y ago
      A Rivian R1T with dual motor and the large battery pack (352 mile range) is $79,000. An F-150 Lightning with the extended range battery (>300 mile range) is between $69k and $77k. Both have cheaper trims available, but the cheapest Lightning is significantly less expensive than the cheapest R1T. Both are really nice trucks too, especially at the higher trim. I don't see a big difference in luxury between an F-150 Platinum and the R1T.
      - OJFord 3y ago
        Ah ok, I had them the wrong way around then (I didn't mean much cheaper), but pretty comparable - if you were in the market you might probably be looking at both. But it's all subjective I suppose, maybe they meant that either would be 'hyper-luxury', I'm not that familiar, I just thought F150s were quite commonplace. (Not here in the UK, no such trucks are, but from what I've seen in North America.)

pityJuke 3y ago

In-app purchase on your iPhone while inside the car? Surely they've got to take 60% for that, for also facilitating the space you're sititng in.

juunpp 3y ago
Tim Sweeney is reading this comment from the dashboard in his Toyota.
- moogly 3y ago
  Sweeney is a Lambo guy, though.
  - juunpp 3y ago
    That's just for the PR, though. He's digging the repairability and serviceability of his Toyota.

rollcat 3y ago

> The world's first non-repairable car. Apple's phones have about 7 years of first-party support / guaranteed useful life, compared with the rest of the industry's standard of maybe 2. Yeah I'd never buy a car that will only be good for 7 years, but let's see what they ship.

fortran77 3y ago
> compared with the rest of the industry's standard of maybe 2. You're just making up facts to protect your beloved brand/cult. C'mon. All my non-Mac computers I'm using here have been around way longer than two years.
- the_gastropod 3y ago
  You're talking about different things. Apple officially supports / provides software updates for its iPhones for 7 years. Other phone manufacturers' durations of support vary, but they're usually much less. Until fairly recently, Google provided 3 years of software updates for Pixels, for example. [1] [1] https://www.androidauthority.com/phone-update-policies-1658633/ https://www.androidauthority.com/phone-update-policies-16586...
  - int_19h 3y ago
    Samsung accounts for the vast majority of Android phones in actual use. Their current policy is also 7 years, as is Google's. You're right that historically this was different, but things change.
- spiderice 3y ago
  You refer to your smart phone as a non-mac computer? Because nobody is talking about Mac's besides you. Or PC's. Or "computers" outside of smart phones in general.
- rollcat 3y ago
  > You're just making up facts [...] Here's objective facts and my experiences that I used to draw my conclusions. My final Android phones were: [1] a Samsung A7 (2017), which included a non-replaceable battery, shipped with Android 6 (2015), officially supported Android 8 (2017; theoretical first-party security patches which it never received were offered until 2021), no longer receives updates even from LineageOS, and never ran postmarketOS; and [2] a Nokia 3 (2017), which had pretty much the same story (support ended on Android 9). In 2019, someone gave me an old, smashed [3] iPhone 7 (2016), and the phone literally worked better than any Android phone I've owned before, including either of the two above. Since it was already physically falling apart, I took the liberty of getting [4] an iPhone SE (2020), which is still with me; the 7 continued to serve in the family for a couple more years. [1]: https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_a7_(2017)-8335.php https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_a7_(2017)-8335.php [2]: https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_3-8572.php https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_3-8572.php [3]: https://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_7-8064.php https://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_7-8064.php [4]: https://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_se_(2020)-10170.php https://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_se_(2020)-10170.php > All my non-Mac computers I'm using here have been around way longer than two years. I have a 2002 TiBook, which, believe me or not, continues to outlive my T61 and X200. My MBP (2017) had a spicy pillow though (which Apple repaired for free, outside of warranty). > [...] to protect your beloved brand/cult. I'm not a cultist, I'm a pragmatist. I used to believe in things - I had a [5] Jolla (2013) for the longest time, because I believed in Free Software and Open Source and all that stuff, until I realized suffering for your values is not necessarily the healthiest thing to do, and that freedom is not strictly a function of a software license, but of things the hardware+software enables you to do with it. [5]: https://www.gsmarena.com/jolla_jolla-review-1025.php https://www.gsmarena.com/jolla_jolla-review-1025.php

Ankaios 3y ago

The world's first non-repairable car. Minor fault, major accident, or inevitably-degraded battery? No problem!, just throw it away and buy the latest model, like you would with a phone or tablet! You wanted an upgrade anyway, didn't you? No big deal. Just buy the AppleCar AppleCare plan.

dmix 3y ago
The idea of having your car replaced on the spot because it has a minor problem that can't be fixed quickly does sound nice.

jccalhoun 3y ago

The only problem is to charge the car you have to turn it upside down because the charge port is on the bottom.

smackeyacky 3y ago
And lie down in the back seat so you can make a side-talkin’ phone call
jes5199 3y ago
it makes sense, you wouldn’t want to give people the impression that the car could still drive while it’s plugged in

bimguy 3y ago

I see that someone has worked at an AASP before. shudders I can imagine their online interactive training right now...

midtake 3y ago

In my limited experience the TCO for Apple computer products seems lower than equivalent PC products. A MacBook I can reasonably expect to stay in the same condition until like 7-10 years later. With a regular windows laptop the screen would be flickering, the keyboard would be worn down, and it would overheat intermittently. I can open my 2012 MacBook Air right now and expect it to work just fine.