“Detroit had a good year in 2014, selling 16.5 million autos — up 1 million from 2013. The stock of Ford and GM has revved on the good news, jumping 5.7 and 7.8 percent, respectively, in 2015.,” Jonathon M. Trugman reports for The New York Post. “But in just one week, Detroit’s vibe has gone from hip to has-been.”
MacDailyNews Take: The last time Detroit’s vibe was hip was in the 1960s.
“With reports last week that Apple hopes to bring a car to market in five years, every motorist who remembers the pre-iPhone era of smartphones must be feeling like their new car will go the way of BlackBerry, Nokia or Palm Pilot,” Trugman reports. “Currently, at a secret location near its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, Apple is said to be working on a car design — code-named “Project Titan” — at breakneck speed. While auto companies can take as long as seven years to develop a car, Apple is said to be hoping to start shipping its vehicles in five years — or as early as 2020.”
“Former Ford Engineer Steve Zadesky is heading up Titan,” Trugman reports. “Zadesky, the boss, besides holding 90-some patents, was the sole signatory on a 2010 business contract with an organization called Liquidmetal. It is known for Moldable Metal — ‘Nanophosphate metal’ — which can be shaped like plastic. Detroit still welds. Apple and Liquidmetal have filed 17 patents together — 14 in the past year or so. It’s this kind of think-way-outside-of-box process that elevates Apple vs. its peers.”
Read more in the full article here.
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