A few days ago, Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess posted a comment on the rumors of Apple building a car on Linkedin, saying that the entry of cash-rich technology giants into the automotive industry will bring challenges to Volkswagen. higher than traditional competitors such as Toyota.
Since the emergence of Apple’s self-driving car project “Project Titan” in 2014, people’s imagination and expectations for Apple cars have always existed. This is the charm of Apple.
However, due to the slow progress, Apple Car is only "looming" in the minds of many people. Until recently, the media began to intensively report on the return of Apple cars, once again stirring up waves: Will the giant that once changed the traditional pattern of the mobile phone market really set off another tsunami in the raging smart car market?
According to China Taiwan's "Economic Daily" citing supply chain news, Apple's first electric car, Apple Car, may be unveiled in September next year, at least two years ahead of schedule. Taiwan auto parts suppliers will launch it next year In the second quarter, we are preparing for the launch of Apple Car in advance. The report also revealed that Apple has been conducting secret road tests in California, USA, with at least dozens of prototype Apple Cars.
It is reported that the core of Apple's strategy is a breakthrough "Monocell" battery design independently developed, which is more economical and safer, and brings longer cruising range. While Apple hasn't commented on its plans or future products, it seems like the Apple Car is actually coming this time.
The Apple Car that seemed so distant in those years
In fact, Apple has been coveting the car market for a long time. As early as 2007, Jobs met with then-Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn to discuss a product called "iCar"; in 2010, while having a secret conversation with car designer Brian Thompson in the car, he even used the back seat All my colleagues were invited out. But until Jobs passed away, he had not yet implemented a product that satisfied him.
It wasn’t until 2013 that Apple released the “iOS?in?the?car” plan, that is, the “Carplay” in-vehicle intelligent operating system. The following year, it launched the famous “Project?Titan” .
Project Titan aims to design an electric minivan rather than today's passenger cars. Apple CEO Tim Cook gave this plan very high specifications: people can be poached from other projects, and the number of people can exceed 1,000. This is also the first time that Apple has made it clear that it wants to build a complete car. Apple's goal is to create a car product that can subvert the times like the iPhone.
Soon, so-called Apple car patents such as silent electric doors, interiors without steering wheels and accelerators, AR displays, Lidar sensors, spherical wheels, etc., excited countless people. Apple also leased a large number of facilities just 1 kilometer away from its headquarters and obtained approval from the city government to build an "automotive work area" and "maintenance garage."
In 2015, Apple registered three domain names: apple.car, apple.cars and apple.auto. This seems to indicate that the Apple car that countless people have longed for will finally be launched.
However, the facts quickly poured cold water on the people who had been looking forward to it. In 2016, Apple's head of car manufacturing, Steve Zadsky, withdrew from the project, and another retired executive, Bob Mansfield, took over. After that, Apple simply gave up its car-building plan and began to focus on intelligent software.
In 2017, Cook said: "We are focused on the autonomous driving system, which is the core technology, and we regard it as the mother of all AI projects." In the same year, Apple obtained a license from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) ) obtained a road test permit and began testing self-driving cars based on the Lexus RX450h. This seemed to declare the failure of "Project Titan".
The Apple Car seems to be leaving only a pile of chicken feathers after the passion. However, many people still have high expectations for the Apple Car and believe that Apple is just waiting for an opportunity and then launch it again. A blockbuster. Apple's ambiguous attitude towards car manufacturing also makes more people believe that the Apple Car has never left.
In 2020, Tesla’s stock price will keep pace with the Falcon rocket, and China’s new car-making forces will also rise with the tide, making countless technology companies covetous. Traditional car companies are accelerating their transformation, and Internet companies are also going overseas to directly or indirectly participate in car manufacturing, which has intensified people's expectations for Apple cars.
Ten thousand possibilities for Apple to build a car
Now, with the arrival of a new round of public opinion offensive, the fireworks in the hearts of countless people have once again been ignited. Apple has indeed maintained a certain presence in the automotive field, including poaching a large number of "big names" from Tesla, such as Tesla Vice President of Engineering Steve McManus and Vice President of Drive Systems Michael Schwekuch, Chief Automotive Engineer Doug Field, and others. This made Musk ridicule, "If you can't work at Tesla, then go to Apple. This is no joke."
Just in the face of the establishment of the Tesla dynasty, Weilai, Xiaomi New car-making forces such as Peng have begun to grow in scale, and traditional car companies also have the confidence to transform quickly. Is it still too late for Apple to get on board now?
Davido’s Law states that the first-generation product entering the market can automatically gain 50% share. Therefore, if you want to occupy a major market share, you must invent the track yourself. But this doesn't seem to be a problem for Apple. The iPhone created the smartphone category, AirPods created the TWS headset track, and MacBook Air set a precedent for high-end thin and light notebooks... There seems to be nothing Apple wants to do but cannot do. Although people are worried about Apple cars, they are more looking forward to it.
Some authoritative analysts believe that Apple is best at vertical integration of its business, so the way they enter the automotive industry will be the same. Apple cannot just cooperate with other car manufacturers to launch more advanced versions of CarPlay. It must have great control, including the design, experience and services of the entire platform. In other words, this car will be another example of Apple's vertical integration of all levels of its products (hardware, software, design), a penchant that is deeply embedded in the company's culture.
But there are still many obstacles for Apple to realize its car dream. After all, building a car is not as simple as producing a mobile phone. For example:
1. In the automotive field, there is a lack of a "Foxconn" that can take into account both production capacity and technological level. Apple needs to build a complete system that meets its extremely high standards, from large factories to small batteries. production system.
It is worth mentioning that Foxconn has also joined the new round of car-making movement. At this year's "Hon Hai Technology Day" event, Foxconn released the electric vehicle chassis and software platform "MIH EV Open" Platform" and announced that solid-state batteries will be launched in 2024. Whether this is somehow related to Apple's car-making is unknown, but the foundry giant is indeed preparing for the coming wave of electrification and intelligence.
2. Profit. After 17 years of hard work, Tesla has just achieved a relatively sustainable profit of 23%, while Apple’s operating profit margin in 2019 was 29.3%. Why does this extremely profitable technology company have to enter a low-profit environment? What about the automotive industry?
It is also worth noting that the current main cost of electric vehicles comes from batteries. If Apple really completes the "Monocell" battery design that it claims can "completely reduce battery costs", it will undoubtedly add strong confidence to Apple to create miracles again.
The biggest enemy of Apple Car is Tesla. Whether it’s batteries or autonomous driving, Tesla is a big mountain in front of everyone entering this industry. Moreover, Tesla has not slowed down its development pace, but is also accelerating.
Compared to Tesla, Apple did come a little late, even behind many technology companies, but Apple still has a chance. On the one hand, vehicle electrification and intelligence are still a blue ocean, and there are still many opportunities; on the other hand, while Tesla prices continue to drop, the high-end electric vehicle segment is still almost a blank sheet of paper. It is a major breakthrough that is in line with Apple's tone; coupled with Apple's "unconventional" style of doing things, there are still 10,000 possibilities unless it quits.
What’s more, for the world’s largest technology company with a market value of more than 2 trillion U.S. dollars and huge amounts of funds and R&D expenses, if Apple “sneeze” on a certain field, then it will All relevant competitors should give it a try.
Is Apple’s car-making almost finished?
It is worth mentioning that Apple has added a small lidar to the new generation iPad Pro and the latest iPhone 12 to enhance AR application capabilities. And this "little radar" is one of the core components of the autonomous driving system.
In fact, for Apple, it almost has the ability to build a smart electric car. Whether it is autonomous driving AI chips, small lidar and other sensors; or the increasingly powerful voice assistant Siri, Carplay operating system; and super strong application ecosystem, Apple has been working on this for too long and has a strong "soft and hard approach" ability.
As Doug Field, the former Tesla senior vice president in charge of R&D and manufacturing, returned to Apple in August 2018 and took charge of the specific business of Special Projects at Apple, Apple began to build cars. Speed ??up. This is also seen by the outside world as Apple Car entering the final sprint stage of integration.
As for this, is this still people’s wishful thinking, or has the dust settled? I believe there will be a clearer answer soon.
Written at the end
Some people say that Apple chose to "make a comeback" at this time to seek self-breakthrough when the company and even the industry's hardware technology innovation are facing a new bottleneck; others say, Apple just doesn’t want to give up on the big market of electrification and intelligence of cars. In any case, as a great company, as long as it can surprise us and even create a great product again, then "car" is just a formality. Therefore, the important thing is not that Apple builds cars, but that Apple builds cars.
To borrow the words of Volkswagen CEO Diess again: "We look forward to new competitors. Their arrival will accelerate the change of the entire industry and bring new inspiration and technological innovation." If Apple builds a car, it will bring There will be another round of storm coming, so let the storm come more violently.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.