“The auto industry has seen a number of disruptive events,” Dave Mark writes for The Loop. “But the auto industry remains pretty much intact. They are still mostly sold in dealerships, still a mostly poorly designed capsule that is not particularly easy to reconfigure.”
“Tesla has done a lot to open the door to disruption,” Mark writes. “But their cars are still recognizably cars. The major disruption is still to come.”
“Personally, I suspect the thing that will disrupt the auto industry into something truly brand new is the autonomous vehicle,” Mark writes. “Apple certainly has the design sense to create a uniquely beautiful, fantastically functional vehicle.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, if Apple enters the market, the carnage will be legion.
We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in. – Ed Colligan, former CEO of the now-defunct Palm, Inc., November 16, 2006
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Oh, yes, an Apple Car will succeed – April 21, 2016
Volkswagen lied about emissions. Mitsubishi may have lied about gas mileage. With the way the car business is today, the road seems wide open for Apple.
I wonder if at some point, legacy carmakers with a bevy of gas powered models will have difficulty winding down those operations while simulataneously ramping up to compete against Apple, Tesla and BMW electric vehicles. If the mobile business is any indication, its not hard to imagine those three carmakers commanding the lion’s share of profits and squeezing all but a few out.
Among the areas ripe for disruption is the entire dealer system: If I’m shopping for, say, an electric or hybrid car, why should I have to go all over the world to different stores to compare similar models? Why should it be so hard — and in some states illegal — to buy a car directly from the dealer, as Tesla does?
Why is it that my two-year-old Prius doesn’t have the equivalent functionality of a 15-year-old MP3 player, the ability to display the artist and title of a CD its playing? Why is it that my car insists are automatically starting to play my CD collection when I plug it in to recharge, and always starting at the first song alphabetically in my 15,000-song library?
Why do spare parts cost 10x the cost of the parts themselves? Why is the company-customer relationship ALWAYS so adversarial? Why is service looked on as a major profit center, instead of part of the entire customer relationship?
Yeah, I think Apple could bring a lot of disruption to a market that certainly needs it. And for those who think that Apple doesn’t have the expertise to figure out shocks and struts — if they can design the circuitry on their own chips, and make cameras the side of a pencil lead, yeah I think they can figure out the 100-year-old technology behind springs.
The pictures that MDN uses that show mobile phones before the iPhone and mobile phones after the iPhone come to mind.
Go to any random parking lot and take a look at cars before the Apple Car. I can’t wait to see what happens next. I think the days of the meaningless crease and the fatuous bulge are about to vanish. There is one optimal aerodynamic shape for any enclosed volume. Every other shape, every meaningless lump, adds drag and reduces range.
So the fossil auto industry is waiting for someone to show them something to copy. And they are incredibly slow about it. Tesla has already shown how to configure a BEV chassis and what an aerodynamic body looks like, yet they still monkey around with bumps, lumps and what I can only guess are gunports for windows.
But those bumps and lumps can be a thing of beauty. The Cord, 49 Lincoln Convertible, 57 Chevy, 68 Corvette and of course the Tesla. Think of a woman without lumps and bumps; you need a certain style in any design. Otherwise we could all wear gray coveralls.
Do not disagree one bit. I liked the ’62 Corvette split-window coupe myself. If the car is to be a piece of art, so it should. The ICE automobile is so inefficient, using 80¢ of every fuel dollar to create waste heat, that the superfluous bump or bulge is lost in the noise.
BEVs can’t afford to be wasteful. And what is the car at its core? It gets one from here to there, safely and in an efficient manner. The art is an artifice on top of that core. I think Apple will be at the core, revealing the essence of a car, in a stylish, but not artsy package.
But I’m a guy who drove Volvos when they were the longest lasting cars in Sweden. When they started soothing my soul, complete with Donald Sutherland voice-overs, I sort of got bored with them.
As far as the grey coveralls go, I’m leaning toward jeans and a tucked-in, blue oxford button-up shirt. An A-2 jacket in cool weather. Works well most days, avoids lots of daily decisions.
There’s a lot more to building a great car than the audio system…
It would be far better to standardize components on vehicles and let vendors build those they’re best at. How about an Apple dashboard and wireless network in your Ford or GM vehicle? One that you can install or replace yourself.
Why isn’t there a standard for common items that will fit a wide range of vehicles and can be commoditized? Any part that can be standardized, should be standardized, so it can be commoditized for the benefit of the consumer.
The great rip-off is the BMW brake pad that costs 10X the Ford part, yet has not real advantage in terms of technology.
Yes this is why drivers spend thousands to try to make their cars look different. It’s also no doubt why after initial success Ford realised forcing lack of choice on people didn’t work when others were offering that choice. Not to mention how when they owned Jaguar (oh how I shiver) and fried to build a compact prestige care on a Mondeo chassis it went down like a lead ballon. I don’t think you quite get it, real or otherwise people do not equate a Ford to a BMW.
Ford’s reign over Jaguar was a travesty. Using the Mondeo chassis was a clear illustration of Ford management’s complete lack of understanding of the Jaguar market. In contrast BMW’s stewardship of Roll Royce and the revival of the Mini are paragon of proper management.
This suggestion is a recipe for disaster. Any kind of fragment model business takes years to evolve. Take a look at Android updates.
I agree completely! I have been saying this for years.
Imagine a dashboard where components get mounted in rack-like fashion.
Need to update your car with the latest stereo/Blu-tooth/WiFi/GPS/navigation/comfort-controller/radar-detector/speakerphone/CB-radio/police-scanner/engine-code-reader/back-scratcher? No problem. It fits right in the standard rack.
> Why isn’t there a standard for common items that will fit a wide range of vehicles and can be commoditized? Any part that can be standardized, should be standardized, so it can be commoditized for the benefit of the consumer.
The irony of this comment written by an Apple fan on MDN is delicious.
I’m thinking that the giga factory will supply common batteries for Tesla and Apple.
So a car that is self driving, looks completely different inside and out yet is beautiful and appealing. Just wait for the critics to be disappointed then when that impossible dream isn’t quite brought to fruition. I’m surprised he doesn’t expect it to fly and cure cancer.
I don’t know about the auto industry, which I consider grossly stoic and antiquated. But there are masses of auto customers who’d enjoy another car company producing fiercely inventive, seriously modern automobiles.