We're no strangers to surprises from Apple, the company has shocked us
before. There it is, right there. I just take my finger and slide it across. Right? Wanna see that again. Very thin. Looks just like this. The question is, what's next? What shocking thing could Apple introduce? Now get ready for the iCar? What's your take on the resurgence of this Apple automobile rumor? Just imagine Tim Cook taking the stage there before a live audience and
introducing an Apple car. We have confirmed from multiple sources that Apple is in discussions
with Hyundai Kia to build an Apple car. For years, automakers have been trying to integrate your phone into your
car, and now it feels like this has been turned on its head. It's integrating your car essentially into your phone. Rumors of an Apple car started in 2014 with more details flooding the news
cycle in 2015. We've seen this kind of reporting in the past with Apple, and then nothing
happens. If Apple does end up producing a car, it's not going to be easy. Take it from someone who knows a thing or two about starting a car
company. Elon Musk himself has said it was harder than launching a rocket. So, I mean, there it pretty much is. It's important to say that, while Tim Cook has confirmed that Apple is
working on a driverless car, we don't know many details about it at all. During a shareholders meeting with Tim Cook in 2016, he said news about the
car project will be, quote, like Christmas Eve for a while. Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world, and it could
become massively more valuable if it can make a splash in cars. The global auto and mobility market is worth about $10 trillion compared to
the measly $715 billion smartphone market. The thought of Tesla and what Tesla had shown it could do gave people in
Silicon Valley this idea that maybe building cars wasn't as hard as everybody always thought. There was this new hope that maybe new entrants could arrive and that was
going to be very bad for Detroit. So here's what we know so far and what we might be able to expect
in the future from the Apple Car. Reuters reported in December of 2020 that Apple was looking to start
production of its car by 2024, but the vision of an automobile developed inside of Apple well before
then. Steve Jobs was reportedly considering the idea back in 2008, but the auto
industry was looking grim. The Big Three are asking the federal government for between $7 and
$18 billion each. Bankruptcy at this point in time would be cataclysmic for the economy. I really believe that. Besides, Apple had just launched the iPhone in 2007
and was on its way to redefining the smartphone and the Apple brand. Fast forward to 2015 and it turns out Apple reportedly already had hundreds
of workers assigned to a secret project called Project Titan. There was two things already going on: Google was working on a self-driving
car and Tesla, this small startup in Silicon Valley, was gaining more and more
attention for its cars. In the time since, Apple has made some interesting
investments and partnerships; the company gave a billion dollars to Chinese Uber competitor Didi Chuxing in
2016, which strengthened Apple's ties to the mobility industry and self-driving
technology boom. Talent from BlackBerry, NASA and others have been commissioned for the
project. Even former Tesla employees have been courted to Project Titan, including
former Tesla auto pilot, powertrain, mechanical design, firmware engineers and global supply chain
managers. That certainly raised some eyebrows. Musk called it the Tesla graveyard in 2015. When Apple first got into this, a lot of people in the car business were
really afraid that their lunch was about to get eaten. The past six years of speculation have been a roller coaster; Apple's building a car, Apple's not building a car,
Apple's building the guts of a car. And recently, sources told CNBC that Apple will be manufacturing an
autonomous car with Hyundai Kia in Georgia. And now that might be out, too. Pump the brakes. Korean car makers Hyundai and Kia saying they are not
currently in talks with Apple to develop a car. Quite a few years ago, and it was Project Titan, it was so
exciting and everyone was talking about it, then it felt like it died off. And then I feel like had gone through a few iterations of being
resurrected,and then now I feel like all of a sudden everyone is talking about it. Apple stock got a bump after Reuters reported Apple could launch its car by
2024. The stock jumped again on the heels of the news that Hyundai Kia could be
partnering to produce the car in Georgia. Only we still don't have many clues at all about what it's going to be or
what it's going to look like. Tech companies are looking for the next screen in your life to make money
off of, and the bet in the hope is that it's in the car. Reports thus far have been speculation about an electronic vehicle with
better battery technology, autonomous driving technology and a signature Apple design. Just a functional autonomous car is enough of a wow factor these days,
particularly from a company that's not in automotive. You're not necessarily expecting Apple to come out with a
vehicle. Any new car company faces major challenges. If you went back to 2015, there was a feeling that when Apple was getting
involved that this was going to happen immediately. What a lot of people in Silicon Valley realizes that making cars is much
harder than they thought. Tesla is a rare example of how a newcomer can reimagine the slow moving and
exclusive auto industry. If you go back to 19, the 1960s when Hyundai first came on
the scene, since then, there's only been one other company that has become a mass
market carmaker, and that is Tesla. But it took Tesla 17 years before it finally turned a
sustained profit. You're not just opening the Apple Store and, you know, going walking up to
the Genius Bar and ordering your car. It's probably not going to be like that. Or maybe it could, but it's going to take a lot of changes, I'd say,
within the way we retail cars in this country. Like Tesla, a new car company would face issues with financing the
staggeringly expensive task of building an automobile manufacturing operation. Tesla has spent billions of dollars on its battery and car factories, and
it plans to build many more. But we're comparing oranges to Apple. I mean, it's Apple. It's already got the brand recognition, the capital
and the safety net, perhaps more than any other company, from any sector, from any country in the world. In its first fiscal quarter of 2021, iPhone and iPad sales pushed Apple's
revenue to over 100 billion dollars for the first time ever. And Apple's services business is doing well, too. So it's got a pretty solid fallback plan if this whole car thing doesn't
work out. One of the benefits Apple would have is that it has a lot of money and it
has a green shoot, if you will, to do this. That said, one of the disadvantages that Apple has is that it doesn't have
generations and generations of experience designing and building and selling cars. Elon Musk said that Apple might have a harder time building a car than it
did building a smartphone or a watch saying, quote, You can't just go to a supplier like Foxconn and say, build
me a car. Funny thing is Foxconn, Apple's main iPhone and iPad assembler, is now
very much involved in the automotive industry, partnering with Chinese car
manufacturer Zhejiang Geely. We're going to tend to see a lot of mergers and a lot of joint partnerships
of companies having to work together because it doesn't feel like one company can accomplish everything. The future is more than just perhaps selling the metal that's on the
wheels. It's also the value that's being created as those wheels turn, whether
that's the data that the user has or potentially that ecosystem within the car. So there's value there to unlock, and car companies are saying, well, why
are we going to give that to Apple? Why can't we do that? Autonomous driving capabilities are looking to be a
big part of the Apple car as well, a technology that is notoriously difficult
to develop, manufacturing of the cars, the distribution, that's the easy part. The hard part with self-driving, which is what they're aiming at, is
getting the A.I. technology working to the point that you can put these cars on the road
and not have them hit and kill people. And I don't think Apple's at that point right now. Alphabea---t owned Waymo says it has already logged millions of miles of
driving on public roads to fine tune its driverless cars. In 2020 alone, Waymo logged almost 629,000 miles in California, whereas Apple counted almost 19,000. And Waymo is already well on its way to launching its autonomous driving
technology, having penned deals with the likes of Jaguar. And then there's the price. Not for Apple, for us. Apple is known for its pricey products. Apple computers have consistently been pricier than PCs. The iPhone X pushed the smartphone market into a new age of over a
thousand dollar phones. What in the world would an Apple car cost? The average transaction price for a new vehicle in this country is $40,000
as of December. So people are not spending small amounts. And when you think about the technology that's going to go into
electrification and autonomous, it's going to make vehicles extremely expensive. If you look at the average selling price of the iPhone in this most
previous quarter, I believe one analyst was saying it's the highest they've ever seen it. And that is in large part because of the higher end phones, these thousand
dollar Pro models that they're selling. And so Apple has done a very good job over the years of getting the high
end of the market and then getting into the lower end of the market. The question is, what kind of car is Apple seeing the market for? Apple has been a trendsetter for decades; graphical interfaces on
computers, portable music players, smartphones, smartwatches, earbuds, so its introduction to the world of
cars could have a profound impact on the auto industry and the tech industry. There are a lot of people doing the exact same thing that Apple is. But it is very noteworthy because in terms of financial resources and
research and development, Apple has all of that in spades. One of the most interesting things about this move from Apple is the huge
amount of cash the company has. In Q1 of 2021, Apple had $195 billion on hand. You know, for $40 billion, they could probably buy Ford and come out with
the two iconic American brands partnering up for the 21st century. And it would be a home run for everybody, I bet. And don't think Ford wants to be bought by Apple. But I think for Apple it's really that idea of thinking about it
differently and almost redesigning from scratch. I don't think that they want to go with another company that's already
invested in this space. It's kind of like that radical redesign and rethinking about how you can
make a product. The rise of Silicon Valley in the car industry has made a lot of car
companies say they need to be more aggressive in kind of developing car 2.0 if you
will. Is Apple going to be a player or are they ultimately going to decide that
they don't have the something that they want to offer that is going to be competitive? In terms of, you know, a cell phone unless it can, like, teleport a human
into where you are, it feels like there's not necessarily the possibility for, like you said, that while factor that
like jaw dropping moment, whereas in transportation, I think the opportunity is ripe for all of a sudden a massive leap forward. When Apple launched the iPhone, there were already several other companies
making smartphones. But Apple made a product that was so unique that it changed the industry
for more than a decade. If Apple can do the same thing with a car, it's probably going to succeed. The car companies are just under siege, essentially. I mean, they're fighting for their own survival. If they don't do this, they will literally become extinct. So, you know, in terms of what they do moving forward, it has to be, you
know, they really have to push the envelope.
Once you buy the car you will need to buy a huge wall wart and a proprietary wire for another $65,000 to charge your car. And Siri is a 389 lb. person that takes up your entire passenger seat.
Apple will slow down your car, so you're forced to upgrade to a new model.
You think you hate it now, wait till you drive it- Eugene Levy. Vacation.
Every new version of the car will have a charging port that is not the same as the previous versions. At first the hardware needed to charge your new car will come standard with the car. But as time moves on, the car will become more expensive and you will have to purchase the hardware to charge the car separately from the purchase of the car.
Legit thinking... I wonder if they will build and staff Apple garages.... basically the Apple Store but for the car.
It's gonna: