Apple Inc. is canceling a decade-long effort to build an electric car, according to people with knowledge of the matter, abandoning one of the most ambitious projects in the history of the company.
Not sure why everyone’s cheering, more competition is never bad and there are already plenty of manufacturers adding subscriptions and such, I doubt Apple would even have been the worst.
At the very least, they probably would’ve had a slick UI in a world of crap infotainment UIs.
However they announced Carplay 2 a few years ago and I’m hoping manufacturers will go ahead with adding that as an option so you could just opt in to Apple UI all over the car and revert back at any time. This is probably the best of both worlds. There are plenty of companies that know quite well how to build a car, they just mostly still all suck at UI.
A problem with apple…Like if my friend has a Toyota, i can borrow that. If they have an icar, I probably couldn’t drive it because I don’t have an iPhone required to start it or apple shoes required to activate the pedals. You know they’d be dicks like that.
Competition usually isn’t bad. Unfortunately, Apple has a tendency to not only be terribly anti-consumer, but also tends to be a trendsetter. They do shitty things, and other companies learn from their example. Thus, the competition becomes a race to the bottom.
Apple can’t compete in that space. Their schtick is producing moderately inexpensive nice looking goods for exorbitant prices that are designed to be impossible to repair by anybody with them.
Tesla has already corned the market.
Trying to block people from repairing? check, trying to block sales of used items? check. Getting rid of all the buttons for all the interfaces and making you work with a tablet in the center of the car? Check.
… And? Apple isn’t even the dominant anything manufacturer, at least worldwide.
I don’t know why people are so upset. You’ve already got your closed market, overpriced, social “mine is bigger than yours (but not really)” compensation brand in the EV market. It’s called a Tesla.
Monopolies are not a yes or no thing. Since Apple has a large enough market share that it is able to strangle competitors just through having that kind of market share, it is having a monopolistic effect on various markets.
For example, the smartphone market, if the smartphone market was perfectly competitive, if I didn’t like Apple’s and Google’s business, I would be able to go to a third seller and get similar products. If I didn’t like them, I could go to a fourth, and so on until it becomes meaningless. Like the market for actual apples for example.
Since that is not true, Apple is distorting the smartphone market with its large market share, making it have monopolistic tendencies.
The fear for me was that Apple would grow quickly in the EV space due to its mainstream popularity, and then start doing the ecosystem thing so driving anything but an Apple car makes you a second-class citizen. Obviously it would only support Carplay and not Android Auto, and probably lack any sort of non-Carplay connectivity so you just can’t connect your Android phone to it at all. Presumably it would also have a proprietary charger that doesn’t work with other cars or vice versa.
To clarify, I meant not just the UI itself being pretty, but also reaction speeds. IOS is still smoother than any Android distro I’ve touched and macOS, while sometimes lacking in the UI department, does nearly everything better than Windows. It doesn’t do many things better than my Gentoo install with KDE Plasma, but that’s hardly something for the common user who doesn’t need all the customization and wants a smooth system straight out of the box.
I was kind of hoping that Apple and Tesla would just feud with each other for control of the “economy-quality product marketed as a luxury-quality product” market share.
Not sure why everyone’s cheering, more competition is never bad and there are already plenty of manufacturers adding subscriptions and such, I doubt Apple would even have been the worst.
At the very least, they probably would’ve had a slick UI in a world of crap infotainment UIs.
However they announced Carplay 2 a few years ago and I’m hoping manufacturers will go ahead with adding that as an option so you could just opt in to Apple UI all over the car and revert back at any time. This is probably the best of both worlds. There are plenty of companies that know quite well how to build a car, they just mostly still all suck at UI.
A problem with apple…Like if my friend has a Toyota, i can borrow that. If they have an icar, I probably couldn’t drive it because I don’t have an iPhone required to start it or apple shoes required to activate the pedals. You know they’d be dicks like that.
Warning: unauthorized, non apple certified tyres detected on your iCar. Disabling airbags due to security issue.
Setting destination to Apple Genius bar.
Competition usually isn’t bad. Unfortunately, Apple has a tendency to not only be terribly anti-consumer, but also tends to be a trendsetter. They do shitty things, and other companies learn from their example. Thus, the competition becomes a race to the bottom.
Apple can’t compete in that space. Their schtick is producing moderately inexpensive nice looking goods for exorbitant prices that are designed to be impossible to repair by anybody with them.
Tesla has already corned the market.
Trying to block people from repairing? check, trying to block sales of used items? check. Getting rid of all the buttons for all the interfaces and making you work with a tablet in the center of the car? Check.
Apple isn’t competition, Apple is a closed market, more anticompetitive than Microsoft and only undone by the degree of their control.
Microsoft wasn’t creating a car, and Apple wasn’t the dominant car manufacturer
… And? Apple isn’t even the dominant anything manufacturer, at least worldwide.
I don’t know why people are so upset. You’ve already got your closed market, overpriced, social “mine is bigger than yours (but not really)” compensation brand in the EV market. It’s called a Tesla.
…a closed market you don’t have to participate in…
You do understand whole markets are hurt by big monopolies.
If Apple had a monopoly on smartphones you’d have a point
Monopolies are not a yes or no thing. Since Apple has a large enough market share that it is able to strangle competitors just through having that kind of market share, it is having a monopolistic effect on various markets.
For example, the smartphone market, if the smartphone market was perfectly competitive, if I didn’t like Apple’s and Google’s business, I would be able to go to a third seller and get similar products. If I didn’t like them, I could go to a fourth, and so on until it becomes meaningless. Like the market for actual apples for example.
Since that is not true, Apple is distorting the smartphone market with its large market share, making it have monopolistic tendencies.
In what way is Apple “strangling competitors”? You have no clue what you’re talking about. Just say you hate Apple and be done.
Just a few cases:
Apple concedes on ‘anticompetitive’ restrictions in App Store
Apple Pay is anticompetitive, says EU in preliminary ruling
Apple’s App Store Draws E.U. Antitrust Charge
I don’t hate Apple, they are behaving as a corporation does. I hate the perversion of free markets that our economies are becoming due to corruption.
Don’t worry, I don’t. … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …
what’s with the dots?
Mocking through gross exaggeration.
The fear for me was that Apple would grow quickly in the EV space due to its mainstream popularity, and then start doing the ecosystem thing so driving anything but an Apple car makes you a second-class citizen. Obviously it would only support Carplay and not Android Auto, and probably lack any sort of non-Carplay connectivity so you just can’t connect your Android phone to it at all. Presumably it would also have a proprietary charger that doesn’t work with other cars or vice versa.
I bet they wanted, but in EU they couldn’t
Apple hasn’t had a slick UI since Apple II PC.
To clarify, I meant not just the UI itself being pretty, but also reaction speeds. IOS is still smoother than any Android distro I’ve touched and macOS, while sometimes lacking in the UI department, does nearly everything better than Windows. It doesn’t do many things better than my Gentoo install with KDE Plasma, but that’s hardly something for the common user who doesn’t need all the customization and wants a smooth system straight out of the box.
I mainly meant that each time touching anything Apple I prepare myself for something as bad as Windows and it is somehow even more problematic to use.
I was kind of hoping that Apple and Tesla would just feud with each other for control of the “economy-quality product marketed as a luxury-quality product” market share.