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Tesla CEO Musk on Battery Factor, Model X, Apple [video]
- ycmike 13y agoElon cannot work for someone else. He is freaking Elon!
- meric 13y agoReverse acquisition?
- ycmike 13y agoThat would be interesting if Apple didn't have essentially the world's largest hedge fund. I hope these were only partnership talks as I believe a free Elon Musk is a net gain for society.
- JetSpiegel 13y agoStill not enough to bankroll the Hyperloop. Right?
- beltex 13y agoShortcut for comments regarding Apple - http://www.macrumors.com/2014/02/19/tesla-ceo-acquisition-unlikely/ http://www.macrumors.com/2014/02/19/tesla-ceo-acquisition-un...
- awkwit 13y agoSay it ain't so
- untog 13y agoThey might have just discussed an integration of Apple technology into Tesla cars. Android manufacturers are already pursuing it, and it would seem like a logical fit for Apple to partner with a company like Telsa first.
- psbp 13y agoInteresting given these statements: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Apple-Google-Smartphone-Steve-Jobs,19211.html http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Apple-Google-Smartphone-Ste... http://www.phonearena.com/news/Elon-Musk-says-Android-apps-could-come-to-Tesla-cars_id48634 http://www.phonearena.com/news/Elon-Musk-says-Android-apps-c... I wonder if Musk made these statements to coerce Apple into a better deal?
- stretchwithme 13y agoI also would not be surprised if Tesla becomes one of the early adopters of the 'iOS in the car' device. Other than that, Apple and Elon are focussed on very different markets. If Musk helped shape the executive team, that would be a boon for Apple. They need another muti-faceted genius to run the place and apparently they aren't under every rock.
- meepmorp 13y agoWell, it's not about buying Tesla, because that makes basically no sense for Apple. It's not about getting him to work for them because what's the appeal for Musk to take anything short of CEO (and the job is already taken by a fairly capable man). So, iOS in vehicle; or possibly some kind of partnership related to battery technology (research or production).
- protomyth 13y agoGiven how much GM is pushing Siri Eyes Free Integration, I would imagine it would not be profitable to buy Tesla. Probably, as you said, iOS in vehicle or iOS integration.
- randomdata 13y ago> Given how much GM is pushing Siri Eyes Free Integration Which is to say not very much? I was aware it was on the horizon through promotion by Apple, but I only accidentally discovered support in my new GM vehicle. Its usage is non-obvious and there was nothing I came across in the promotional materials or indication through the dealer suggesting that it was available.
- protomyth 13y agoGM has been advertising very heavily on the Olympics and other venues. They're spending cash on it.
- maxerickson 13y agoNow that you say that I notice that I have seen the ads. I wonder how much of that is a response to Ford and their Sync stuff. (I don't pay attention to the new car market, but I am aware of Ford Sync as a brand and have no idea what GM had for a comparable feature)
- protomyth 13y ago
- modeless 13y agoI don't want to watch a 10 minute video. What did he say exactly? Edit: The title of this story was originally something like "Musk confirms talks with Apple".
- dkasper 13y agoThere is a transcript on this page http://hedgeaccording.ly/2014/02/elon-musk-to-bloombergtv-we-had-conversations-with-apple-tsla-aapl.html http://hedgeaccording.ly/2014/02/elon-musk-to-bloombergtv-we...
- modeless 13y agoThanks! The relevant snippet: LIU: [...] Is there any truth to a possible partnership, merger with Apple? MUSK: Well of course it’s – if – if – if one or more companies had approached us last year about such things, there’s no way we could really comment on that. LIU: Well did you have a conversation with Apple? MUSK: We had conversations with Apple. I can’t comment on whether those revolved around any kind of acquisition. LIU: Are you for sale? If there was a right price, are you for sale? MUSK: I think that’s very unlikely [...]
- zhaphod 13y agoI admire Elon for what he is trying to do. But selling to Apple would be a complete U-turn to what he has said. On many occasions he has mentioned that he won't change ownership of Tesla till the mass market electric vehicle becomes a success. That would be at least 2020 as that would be the time frame when one can say whether Model E is a success or not. I hope he sticks to what he has said.
- ahsteele 13y agoAgreed, I hate this trend. So many websites are now opting for video over written content. I can skim an article / blog post and glean most of the salient points. Video makes that impossible.
- 13y ago
- officer_gotcha 13y agoThat's too bad. Instead of talking to Apple about licensing the reality distortion field generator, he should have been talking to Google about licensing their self-drive software.
- geetee 13y agoThe autopilot discussion at the end was more interesting than the Apple part. Side note: Betty Liu looks stoned.
- michaelwww 13y agoI agree. I've been confused by this notion of driver-less cars up until now because at the end of the day it didn't seem workable or acceptable to have cars on the road with no human attendant. Musk clears that up when he says he doesn't like the term driver-less and it's much more like auto-pilot on an airplane that will assist drivers. He predicts it will be a common accessory in high end cars in 3 years and in all cars in 10 years. One scenario where this would be very helpful would be in the dense fog which occurs in the California Central Valley.
- maxerickson 13y agoDriver assist is a common feature in currently available high end cars and is working down through the model tiers. (Lane keeping, adaptive cruise, accident avoidance (brake pressure priming/auto braking), in some sense traction control is a driver assist feature)
- michaelwww 13y agoI shouldn't have said "assist drivers" because I took it to mean full auto-pilot like an airplane. The car could drive itself from point A to point B in the most efficient way possible without human intervention, while the licensed human driver remained ultimately responsible for safe operation. I wonder if activities like texting or reading a book while piloting a car will become legal in this case.
- maxerickson 13y agoYeah, fair enough. I think that is the worst case situation, because people won't pay enough attention (so to allow it the pilot has to be good enough to anyway work/license/stand up to liability alone).
- nostromo 13y agoApple question is at 6:24
- Aqueous 13y agoAn outright merger would ruin both Tesla and Apple. Tesla needs to focus on car design and Apple needs to focus on mobile devices and computers. If Tesla joined Apple the resulting organization would be too large and would ensure that neither of them could focus. A software/embedded hardware deal, as the interviewer refers to, would make much more sense.
- jonmrodriguez 13y agoI think the autopilot stuff is way more interesting than any talks with Apple. Tesla wants to bring autopilot to market in just a few years, ahead of all other companies? And Tesla claims to have more autonomous vehicle expertise than anyone else (including Google)? These are awesome claims, I can't wait to see them play out!
- chiph 13y agoI was more interested in his comments about the Model X. It has been a while since the announcement. I'd like to get some pricing info, either to say "Send me one" or "Uh-oh."
- bsbechtel 13y agoMusk vision + Apple's $100B in cash = iOS integrated mass market cars?
- jccooper 13y agoCan someone please fix the title? It's a battery factory. Tesla plans to build a "giga battery factory" with one or more of its battery partners in a three-year timeframe.