How Tesla serves as both an encouragement to Apple’s automotive ambitions as well as a cautionary tale
With Apple looking to enter and disrupt the automotive industry, it can learn from both the good and the bad of Tesla.
While Apple has never announced that it’s working on a car, it’s been an open secret for several years. Between news on top talent joining and leaving, spy photos of Apple testing its autonomous driving system, and news on potential manufacturing deals, it’s clear that Apple is very serious about jumping into the automotive industry. Tesla has disrupted the car industry massively over the last several years by making electric vehicles both practical and desirable, and I think it offers some things that Apple can learn from as it seeks to get its own car to market sometime this decade.
The good: technology and computing are radically transforming the automotive industry
Apple has no experience manufacturing cars, but it does have a lot of experience as a leader in technology, specifically with chip design and battery tech. Both of these are key technologies necessary for electric cars to thrive, and have historically not been something traditional car companies have excelled at. Apple has already disrupted the auto industry via CarPlay, which transforms a car’s stereo/navigation system into one with an all-Apple interface. This has become a standard feature on essentially every car (with Tesla being a notable exception) over the last few years. There have already been rumors that Apple is interested in extending its association with existing car companies by going beyond CarPlay to powering and managing the entire dashboard experience. As more cars adopt “digital cockpits” and eschew traditional analog gauges, this makes a ton of sense, assuming they can convince car makers to give them that much control.
Tesla proved that bringing technology learned from the computer industry over to cars is the way of the future. Recently I heard one of Volkswagen’s corporate leaders say something to the effect that the future of cars is as a mobile technology platform. This paradigm change in the industry is the reason why Apple sees an opening for it to have an impact on the industry (and rake in some revenue).
The bad: technology-first doesn’t always lead to good car manufacturing
For all of the cultural cache and plaudits Tesla gets for its technology, it often gets fairly poor marks for fit and finish. The internet is littered with stores of mismatched paint and inconsistent panel gaps amongst other strange issues regarding Tesla cars. They’re an industry leader in automotive technology (if not the industry leader), but they’re not as good at the basics of auto manufacturing as traditional car companies. While a Tesla Model S is probably the superior electric car from a technology standpoint, I’ll bet a Mercedes EQS would feel like an overall more competent EV. Apple is either going to have to learn quickly how to manufacture quality cars, or else partner with an existing manufacturer willing to bring its execution expertise to Apple Car while building it to Apple’s exact specifications. My guess is the latter option is what they’ll go with.
Time is running out
I’ve frankly always been a bit bearish on Apple Car. I think from a tech perspective Apple can bring a compelling product to market, and of course I’d love to see Apple’s design team take on designing a car. But my concern about Apple is the same one I’ve had about Tesla for years: what happens once the existing car companies catch up, or come close enough? I think they’re getting there. That should be worrying for Tesla, but much more so for Apple since Apple hasn’t had years in the industry carving out a niche the way Tesla has.