“Count Steve Jobs among those curious about what an Apple car would look like,” Adam Satariano reports for Bloomberg. “In 2008, not too long after the Apple co-founder introduced the iPhone, Jobs was considering the possibilities of a much bigger gadget. Tony Fadell, then a senior vice president at Apple, remembers talking with Jobs about the potential for an iCar.”
“Jobs and Fadell, who had collaborated on the iPod and iPhone, swapped ideas about car designs on multiple occasions. ‘We had a couple of walks,’ Fadell said in an interview with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang,” Satariano reports. “The pair posed hypothetical questions to each other, such as: ‘If we were to build a car, what would we build? What would a dashboard be? And what would this be? What would seats be? How would you fuel it or power it?'”
“The idea for a car had been bouncing around Apple even before 2008. Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of marketing, said in 2012 court testimony that executives discussed building a car even before it released the iPhone in 2007,” Satariano reports. “Mickey Drexler, a former Apple board member and head of J.Crew Group, also said in 2012 that Jobs had wanted to build a car.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: And, now, it looks like Apple will do just that.
SEE ALSO:
Bill Ford on Apple’s vehicle push: ‘It’s awesome’ – November 4, 2015
Analyst: Apple Car will cost an average of $55,000 – October 16, 2015
Apple speeds up electric-car efforts, aims for 2019 ‘ship date’ – September 21, 2015
Survey: 77% of hybrid or electric vehicle owners would likely buy an Apple Car – May 13, 2015
What to expect from the Apple Car: Disruption – August 31, 2015
Apple Car: Tesla engineer joins Apple’s ‘Project Titan’ vehicle effort – August 21, 2015
Apple Car development proceeds apace – July 27, 2015
Apple hires veteran Fiat Chrysler auto industry executive – July 20, 2015
What’s up with Carl Icahn’s sudden obsession with the Apple Car? – May 18, 2015
Survey: 77% of hybrid or electric vehicle owners would likely buy an Apple Car – May 13, 2015
Apple Car: Forget ‘electric,’ think hydrogen fuel cells – February 20, 2015
Apple working with Intelligent Energy on fuel cell technology for mobile devices, sources say – July 14, 2014
North Carolina regulators approve Apple’s 4.8-megawatt fuel cell facility at Maiden data center – May 23, 2012
New aerial images of Apple’s planned NC fuel cell, solar farms published – April 7, 2012
Apple’s massive fuel cell energy project to be largest in the U.S. – April 4, 2012
Apple patent application reveals next-gen fuel cell powered Macs and iOS devices – December 22, 2011
Apple patent app details highly-advanced hydrogen fuel cells to power portable devices – October 20, 2011
Look at the design of a lot of consumer products—they’re really complicated surfaces.You know how you see a show car, and it’s really cool, and then four years later you see the production car, and it sucks? And you go, What happened? They had it! They had it in the palm of their hands! They grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory!
Steve Jobs Bio: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Automobiles–now there is an industry that is ripe for disruption.
We’ve arrived at a point where car makers seem to be out of good ideas. Their designs a so similar and stale. Hondas look like GM cars look like Fords look like Hyundais. Even Tesla looks pretty much like other cars.
Internally, the dashboards are in internal mess of controls that lack any sense of good design. In fact, we’ve are now at a point where the main selling point on some cars is how many cup holders they have.
Yeah, this is an industry that is begging for someone like Apple to build something better–something cool.
What is the safest position to be in if there were to be a crash at 70 mph? Start from there.
What this means: The HUGE cash hoard has a purpose. The car could be a bet-the-company move with huge purchases and massive-scale build-outs.
Spaceship campus? Nope. It’s a wheel.
So is Tony the next Eric?
I remember when most people here, on this board, gave those of us who said that Apple needs to build a car, such a hard time. They came up with all kinds of weird reasons for how it would be such a mistake for Apple to do so. Reasons like, how car manufacture was so difficult, how servicing cars is not something Apple could do, how car warranties and liabilities in accidents would kill Apple. All sorts of weird reasons and sanctimonious shit. I just want to ask one question…….WHERE ARE YOU NOW, IDIOTS?
Then there are those at the other end of the spectrum…..I.e. those that wanted Apple to buy Tesla. Now I have a Tesla and I just love it, but why would they pay in excess of $30 billion to get something they could build for less than $10 billion?
Feeling much better now that I got that off my shoulders…..and saving up for an Apple car.
When I think of an Apple electric car, I think 1/12th or 1/8th scale! Seriously, isn’t every one and their brother doing one of these? I think Apple should buy Terrafugia and get on with the real next big thing! Now, I’d buy one of those!