I ’m sit in a deep brown shop while I wait for the bargainer down the street to finish repairs — of the expensive kind , course — on my railroad car . It ’s a unadulterated storm : brakes that require replacing , scheduled divine service , and a menacing yellow “ check engine ” light that came on the other day .
And I ask myself , as I sit down here : why the heck would Apple want to get into the car business ?
rumor of the company get into the automobile business have been rampant for year now , with many positioning an Apple Car against the medium darling that is Elon Musk ’s Tesla . I certainly would n’t bet against Apple beingcapableof work up an electrical motorcar — the company has render clock time and again not just ingenuity and wherewithal , but the ability to come through in well - plant market . But designing and building a car , difficult as those processes are , is just the beginning .
Driving ambition
OK , yes , there are a band of thing that can be improved in the machine manufacture , and Apple has an almost rabid cause in ecumenical to improve the things that we all get frustrated by .
Apple ’s tried to make headway into the car industry in the past , initially working with prime partner like BMW to bring iPod integration to automobile stereoscopic photograph , and later on go whole hog by developingCarPlay , basically replacing the onboard electronics systems with a specialized interlingual rendition of iOS . That ’s great , because much as I enjoy the experience ofdrivingmy car , its electronics scheme feel if not archaic then , well , certainly antiquated . I ’m on record as enunciate that gondola company reallyshouldn’t be allowednear entertainment user interface .
On the one helping hand , Apple ’s vaunted focus on elegance easiness could certainly do much for gondola pattern , especially where automobiles desegregate with our ever more present and powerful machine . But having seenwhat passes as the interior of Tesla ’s new Model 3 — albeit one that Elon Musk claims is still in progress — I’m a little wary of a technology fellowship try too hard to upend the manufacture conventions for the saki of to-do . There ’s a all right telephone line between confuse out the older , sedate way of thinking and think that if ai n’t broke — and has n’t been for a century — then perhaps it ’s best not to pay back it .
Genius Garage?
As I said , though , designing and building the gondola is just the commencement . Even more than our Macs , we tend to keep our cars for a long fourth dimension . And over that car ’s lifetime , it tends to need a small spot of erotic love and attention .
Honestly , I ’m trying to depict bringing my Apple Car in for a brake job . Would I draw up at some sort of Apple Garage , perhaps with a cafe attached where I could get my oeuvre done while Apple Geniuses trade in new parts ? Mass - market galvanic cars are evenhandedly newfangled , and from what entropy we have , their maintenance monetary value seem to be low than traditional throttle or hybrid autos . As someone who ’s looking at a hefty bill for things that are for the most part matter of wear - and - tear , there ’s a definite appeal to a car that ask less in the room of tune - ups and oil change .
But electric cable car are n’t without their maintenance costs , evidently . In addition to the aforementioned brakes , for instance , you need to cope with tire leaks and punctures , bent wheel rims , and so on . Eventually the battery will want to be replaced . And motor and wiring are n’t immune to the ravage of sentence and information . orchard apple tree needs to be prepare for distribute with those contingence , which means not only carry an stock of said parts , but also training citizenry to serve and supplant them when necessary .
That ’s a lot of infrastructure — this is n’t simply something that can be bolted on to its existing service apparatus . There ’s not much difference in acquire an Apple Watch or an iPhone in to a store for serving , but a auto is something else entirely . While it ’s not inconceivable , it ’s certainly daunting .
Auto motives
This does n’t even begin to respond a boniface of other challenges for Apple in the car marketplace . What will the upgrade cycle be like on an Apple Car ? Will the troupe put out a new mannequin ever class ? What kind of profit will Cupertino look to make ? Heavens , what will the car actuallylook like ?
We ’ve got a while yet before we have the reply to any of thesequestions , all of which are predicated on the openhanded of them all : will Apple evenmake a carin the first place ? There are a short ton of move parts , if you will , and though Apple is decidedly asavvycompany that can fetch a deal of resources to bear on developing an automobile , I go back to my earlier query : why would itwantto ?
The simplest answer , if you buy into Apple ’s merchandising subject matter , is that it wants to make products that delight and storm its customers and that make the man a better place . And for all of us who spend any amount of time in a car , we fuck that ’s a commendable — if usurious — finish .
