With Apple canceling their EVs, a lot of ppl think they are better off licensing their autonomous driving software to car makers, or continue with the carplay route. I don’t think either will play out. A few years down the road, I think ppl will realize apple stopping their EV plan is a huge blow.
Licensing self driving software
You kinda need a fleet running out there to grab real life data, which Apple won’t be able to. And the competition has already started where Apple has nothing to show:
Toyota partnered with Huawei globally
Same story for Audi (and very likely the VW group)
Carplay
“People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware” - Alan Kay and quoted by Jobs
A good car OS needs deep integration with the car itself. Future cars will be “software defined”. For example: Porsche’s new active suspension is digital rather than mechanical. Xiaomi’s SU7 supports in car “made for Xiaomi” accessories that requires software integration.
Carplay is essentially Apple working as a contractor for legacy auto makers. They will need to build experience for every single auto makers who is willing to partner with them.
1. Cross company partnership is really hard, and slow.
2. Apple cannot focus on making one great experience, but rather need to have multiple teams to build similar but different experiences. It will waste a lot of time and effort.
3. When you need to make things generic for different screen layout/sizes, different hardware, button combos, different feature sets. You tend to reduce the capability of the software, or you will be in a hell for keeping the software optimal and up to date. And Apple doesn’t have that experience.
4. Different car companies will be willing to open their hardware to a different level to Apple, but never fully. Carplay will not be able to match the capacity and integration with native OS. I am not comparing carplay to the legacy auto maker’s OS, but the new EVs like Tesla, Rivian, Geely, Huawei, and Xiaomi.
5. Some features are plain impossible to build if you don’t control the hardware. Such as multi-modal interaction. Like pointing to a window and say “open that window” currently available on Li EVs.
So I am not convinced Carplay will continue to be successful. It has been 1+ years out, and what promises has Apple delivered for Carplay2? And IMO the Carplay 2 concept is.. bad.
Why Apple needs an EV
I believe a lot of people on this forum spends 1+ hours on their car everyday. As cars gets smarter and smarter, they will get into your digital ecosystem. Carplay was a very good start, but it will be very lacking compared to other ecosystems.
Apple doesn’t need to revolutionize the car industry, although they could, with some nice hardware and a killer software experience. At this moment, they just need a good car as a platform to carry their in house software that deeply integrates with the iOs ecosystem.
Just like how people won’t buy cars without Carplay. One day, people might find buying iPhone hard to justify because they don’t have good integrations with cars
Licensing self driving software
You kinda need a fleet running out there to grab real life data, which Apple won’t be able to. And the competition has already started where Apple has nothing to show:
Toyota partnered with Huawei globally
Same story for Audi (and very likely the VW group)
Carplay
“People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware” - Alan Kay and quoted by Jobs
A good car OS needs deep integration with the car itself. Future cars will be “software defined”. For example: Porsche’s new active suspension is digital rather than mechanical. Xiaomi’s SU7 supports in car “made for Xiaomi” accessories that requires software integration.
Carplay is essentially Apple working as a contractor for legacy auto makers. They will need to build experience for every single auto makers who is willing to partner with them.
1. Cross company partnership is really hard, and slow.
2. Apple cannot focus on making one great experience, but rather need to have multiple teams to build similar but different experiences. It will waste a lot of time and effort.
3. When you need to make things generic for different screen layout/sizes, different hardware, button combos, different feature sets. You tend to reduce the capability of the software, or you will be in a hell for keeping the software optimal and up to date. And Apple doesn’t have that experience.
4. Different car companies will be willing to open their hardware to a different level to Apple, but never fully. Carplay will not be able to match the capacity and integration with native OS. I am not comparing carplay to the legacy auto maker’s OS, but the new EVs like Tesla, Rivian, Geely, Huawei, and Xiaomi.
5. Some features are plain impossible to build if you don’t control the hardware. Such as multi-modal interaction. Like pointing to a window and say “open that window” currently available on Li EVs.
So I am not convinced Carplay will continue to be successful. It has been 1+ years out, and what promises has Apple delivered for Carplay2? And IMO the Carplay 2 concept is.. bad.
Why Apple needs an EV
I believe a lot of people on this forum spends 1+ hours on their car everyday. As cars gets smarter and smarter, they will get into your digital ecosystem. Carplay was a very good start, but it will be very lacking compared to other ecosystems.
Apple doesn’t need to revolutionize the car industry, although they could, with some nice hardware and a killer software experience. At this moment, they just need a good car as a platform to carry their in house software that deeply integrates with the iOs ecosystem.
Just like how people won’t buy cars without Carplay. One day, people might find buying iPhone hard to justify because they don’t have good integrations with cars