klier
Premium
A lot faster than you, because you are under the impression a car equals a phone or computer.
Apple and Google surprise Daimler with their progress on cars
A lot faster than you, because you are under the impression a car equals a phone or computer.
Mr Robert
Kraftwagen König
I said "should", even Apple should understand this, even if I'm not working for them.
KiwiRob
Autotechnik Ace
I'm not under that impression at all, what I do understand is Apple and Apples market positioning for there products, unless you have been living in a cave you would know Apple is not a budget brand, to think that Apple would build a budget vehicle is insane, it just won't happen. They have a lot more money than Tesla, look what they produced, I'm pretty confident they will build a much better vehicle than Musk.
SDNR
Kraftwagen König
If I'm not mistaken, Apple Inc. is the world's most valuable company.
They certainly have the resources to build something extraordinary.
Lets just hope Microsoft doesn't jump on this bandwagon .... My Windows 10 system has frozen several times recently
SDNR
Kraftwagen König
Samsung is already working on making components for self-driving cars. Your point is likely correct however, Samsung doesn't appear to be committed to building entire cars ....at least for now.
EnI
Piston Pioneer
Automotive industry doesn't really know (isn't aware) what is going to hit them from the IT industry. We are going to see the same situation as in the mobile communication sector - Apple & Google dominating. Carmakers will mostly be hardware providers in the future - like phone makers are. Apple sure has giant resources. So do many carmakers. But Google / Alphabet is light years ahead, and will soon offer an integral automotive IT platform - which perhaps won't be the best but it will be VERY useful & with best mass-volume potential.
German Trio bought HERE from Nokia - an important pillar for the automotive IT ... but they better built an entire automotive IT consortium around it ASAP (incl. other carmakers & IT specialists). Otherwise they will be overrun by Google & Apple.
They acquired HERE but it seems they don't really know what to do with it.
Google will follow the same strategy as in mobile device & consumer electronics sector: providing platform, apps & services to various carmakers. Picking one of two of them for their strategic partners - eg. for making "Nexus cars".
While Apple will offer Apple branded car - developed & designed by Apple (in cooperation with ...), but assembled by a renown carmaker.
Microsoft? I don't know. They eyeing Yahoo definitely indicates something's going on. But Microsoft can quickly become obsolete for the consumers if not being proactive. Windows & Office platforms can quickly become business specialized products - while ... in the era of mobile devices & Internet-of-Thing Google & Apple will be the main players; with their respective platforms.
We are going to see quite some shifts in the automotive & IT industry - when both sectors are heading towards "collision". Who-will-eat-whom situations are inevitable. There will be partnerships, there will be alliances, and there will be ... wars. Bidding wars, headhunting wars, wars for investors etc. Since the goal will be the same for everybody - to gain the most from the upcoming changes.
IMHO German trio & the automotive industry is TOO RIGID to outplay the IT companies. The later are much more flexible, more innovative, more pioneering, having better vision & most importantly - better leadership & more keen owners / investors.
I put my bet on the IT sector. Automotive sector will become IT sector's bitch. Just like consumer electronics makers already are. That said ... automotive sector can still be very successful & some carmakers very important etc ... But they role will be a bit secondary. They will mostly be hardware providers - completely dependent on IT giants.
And this IT+automotive "collision" or "merger" is the next big thing. And US will the leader here. That's a serious threat for Europe - especially Germany, for Japan & for Korea. Since Auto+IT era will definitely reposition US automakers & US automotive industry. Not sure what's going on in China ... I guess nothing revolutionary.
I'm really eager to see how the cards will be reshuffled in the automotive industry in the not-so-distant future. I really hope the Germans are ready. I'm not so sure ... They have some ideas but they are too slow & to rigid when it comes to implementation. Sad but Germany completely missed the timing & opportunity here - in the IT sector. I don't know ... perhaps it has something to do with too rationalistic mindset & not-so-innovative rigid business / corporate culture (which is also the whole Europe's problem).
Let's wait & see what the time brings.
German Trio bought HERE from Nokia - an important pillar for the automotive IT ... but they better built an entire automotive IT consortium around it ASAP (incl. other carmakers & IT specialists). Otherwise they will be overrun by Google & Apple.
They acquired HERE but it seems they don't really know what to do with it.
Google will follow the same strategy as in mobile device & consumer electronics sector: providing platform, apps & services to various carmakers. Picking one of two of them for their strategic partners - eg. for making "Nexus cars".
While Apple will offer Apple branded car - developed & designed by Apple (in cooperation with ...), but assembled by a renown carmaker.
Microsoft? I don't know. They eyeing Yahoo definitely indicates something's going on. But Microsoft can quickly become obsolete for the consumers if not being proactive. Windows & Office platforms can quickly become business specialized products - while ... in the era of mobile devices & Internet-of-Thing Google & Apple will be the main players; with their respective platforms.
We are going to see quite some shifts in the automotive & IT industry - when both sectors are heading towards "collision". Who-will-eat-whom situations are inevitable. There will be partnerships, there will be alliances, and there will be ... wars. Bidding wars, headhunting wars, wars for investors etc. Since the goal will be the same for everybody - to gain the most from the upcoming changes.
IMHO German trio & the automotive industry is TOO RIGID to outplay the IT companies. The later are much more flexible, more innovative, more pioneering, having better vision & most importantly - better leadership & more keen owners / investors.
I put my bet on the IT sector. Automotive sector will become IT sector's bitch. Just like consumer electronics makers already are. That said ... automotive sector can still be very successful & some carmakers very important etc ... But they role will be a bit secondary. They will mostly be hardware providers - completely dependent on IT giants.
And this IT+automotive "collision" or "merger" is the next big thing. And US will the leader here. That's a serious threat for Europe - especially Germany, for Japan & for Korea. Since Auto+IT era will definitely reposition US automakers & US automotive industry. Not sure what's going on in China ... I guess nothing revolutionary.
I'm really eager to see how the cards will be reshuffled in the automotive industry in the not-so-distant future. I really hope the Germans are ready. I'm not so sure ... They have some ideas but they are too slow & to rigid when it comes to implementation. Sad but Germany completely missed the timing & opportunity here - in the IT sector. I don't know ... perhaps it has something to do with too rationalistic mindset & not-so-innovative rigid business / corporate culture (which is also the whole Europe's problem).
Let's wait & see what the time brings.
Mr. Mercedes
Premium
It's fascinating indeed Eni. Alarm bells should be ringing everywhere. I suspect the Germans will survive in one form or another just because they are such powerful brand names. But what seemed to be an overnight arrival by Tesla should have had them in much more of a frenzy. They would be looking at the order books for the new Tesla III in absolute astonishment. The car is still at least a year away from market.
Cashmere
RPM Ruler
Apple hires former Tesla VP and Aston Martin Chief Engineer for ‘special project’
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has an affectionate nickname for Apple: The ‘Tesla Graveyard‘. “They have hired people we’ve fired,” Musk said. “We always jokingly call Apple the ‘Tesla Graveyard.’ If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple”. He made the comment after being asked about the so-called “poaching war” between the automaker and the consumer electronic giant following the start of Apple’s electric car program: ‘Project Titan‘.
We follow who’s coming and who’s going at Tesla pretty closely at Electrek and it’s clear that the two companies share a lot of former colleagues. Tesla’s senior engineering staff and leadership are full of former Apple directors and VPs, while the Cupertino-based company hired quite a few former Tesla engineers, but rarely any senior leadership… until now.
9to5Mac, in collaboration with our sister-site Electrek, has exclusively confirmed and discovered respectively that Apple hired former Tesla Vice President of Vehicle Engineering and former Aston Martin Chief Engineer, Chirs Porritt, to work on “special projects”, and we know that “special projects” is where Apple’s Titan car project lives.
Coincidentally (or not), a recent report claimed that Steve Zadesky, the Apple executive believed to be leading Project Titan, left the company earlier this year.
If Zadesky indeed left the company, it would make newly hired Porritt Apple’s most senior “car guy” and a likely candidate to lead the Cupertino company’s electric car initiative. While his expertise could be useful in plenty of hardware engineering roles, he had a focus on vehicle dynamics, vehicle architecture and vehicle packaging throughout his long career.
Before moving to Silicon Valley, Porritt was a key engineer in the UK automotive industry. He started as an intern at Land Rover in 1987 and rose to the role of Principal Engineer in Vehicle Dynamics by 1997. The engineer then went to work for Aston Martin where he held a Chief Engineer role until 2013, when he joined Tesla as Vice President of Vehicle Engineering.
At Aston Martin, Porritt was credited with making some of the company’s most iconic vehicles in recent years, including the One-77 supercar, V12 Zagato and Aston Martin DB9.
Jony Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer, is known to have a weak spot for Aston Martin and he reportedly owned a few of their models.
Interestingly, another former Aston Martin Chief Engineer, Steve MacManus, joined Tesla as VP of Engineering around the same time Porritt left the automaker last year.
At Tesla, Porritt reportedly worked on both the Model S and X platforms, as well as the Model 3 chassis.
Giving some weight to Musk’s half-jokingly ‘Tesla Graveyard’ claim, we can confirm that Porritt didn’t make a direct transition from Tesla to Apple, but there was a few months between him leaving the electric automaker and joining the Cupertino company.
When hiring the engineer in 2013, Tesla issued a press release and Musk commented:
“Tesla is a hardcore technology company, which means that anyone leading a team of engineers must be an outstanding engineer themself, as well as a good leader. Chris demonstrated exactly that in his prior role at Aston Martin, creating in the One-77 what was arguably their best car ever.”
He joins Apple a lot more quietly than with a press release. We are told by sources with knowledge of the matter at Apple that he joins the company as “Special Projects Group PD Administrator” – an intentionally vague title. Last year, Apple hired a senior engineer working on Tesla’s Autopilot program, Jamie Carlson. He was also listed as a member of a special projects group.
We can confirm that some senior Apple engineers will be reporting directly to Porritt, including Product Development Engineering Director, Albert Golko, who until last year was working for the iPhone group and now on unspecified products. Emery Sanford is also said to report directly to Porritt now. Sanford is a prolific engineer named in dozens of Apple’s patents and who often worked directly with Zadesky, the exec believed to have been in charge of Project Titan until earlier this year.
While Apple has yet to officially acknowledge working on a car, it’s kind of an “open-secret” in the auto and tech industries that it is developing an electric (and possibly autonomous) vehicle.
http://9to5mac.com/2016/04/19/exclu...artin-chief-engineer-for-special-car-project/
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has an affectionate nickname for Apple: The ‘Tesla Graveyard‘. “They have hired people we’ve fired,” Musk said. “We always jokingly call Apple the ‘Tesla Graveyard.’ If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple”. He made the comment after being asked about the so-called “poaching war” between the automaker and the consumer electronic giant following the start of Apple’s electric car program: ‘Project Titan‘.
We follow who’s coming and who’s going at Tesla pretty closely at Electrek and it’s clear that the two companies share a lot of former colleagues. Tesla’s senior engineering staff and leadership are full of former Apple directors and VPs, while the Cupertino-based company hired quite a few former Tesla engineers, but rarely any senior leadership… until now.
9to5Mac, in collaboration with our sister-site Electrek, has exclusively confirmed and discovered respectively that Apple hired former Tesla Vice President of Vehicle Engineering and former Aston Martin Chief Engineer, Chirs Porritt, to work on “special projects”, and we know that “special projects” is where Apple’s Titan car project lives.
Coincidentally (or not), a recent report claimed that Steve Zadesky, the Apple executive believed to be leading Project Titan, left the company earlier this year.
If Zadesky indeed left the company, it would make newly hired Porritt Apple’s most senior “car guy” and a likely candidate to lead the Cupertino company’s electric car initiative. While his expertise could be useful in plenty of hardware engineering roles, he had a focus on vehicle dynamics, vehicle architecture and vehicle packaging throughout his long career.
Before moving to Silicon Valley, Porritt was a key engineer in the UK automotive industry. He started as an intern at Land Rover in 1987 and rose to the role of Principal Engineer in Vehicle Dynamics by 1997. The engineer then went to work for Aston Martin where he held a Chief Engineer role until 2013, when he joined Tesla as Vice President of Vehicle Engineering.
At Aston Martin, Porritt was credited with making some of the company’s most iconic vehicles in recent years, including the One-77 supercar, V12 Zagato and Aston Martin DB9.
Jony Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer, is known to have a weak spot for Aston Martin and he reportedly owned a few of their models.
Interestingly, another former Aston Martin Chief Engineer, Steve MacManus, joined Tesla as VP of Engineering around the same time Porritt left the automaker last year.
At Tesla, Porritt reportedly worked on both the Model S and X platforms, as well as the Model 3 chassis.
Giving some weight to Musk’s half-jokingly ‘Tesla Graveyard’ claim, we can confirm that Porritt didn’t make a direct transition from Tesla to Apple, but there was a few months between him leaving the electric automaker and joining the Cupertino company.
When hiring the engineer in 2013, Tesla issued a press release and Musk commented:
“Tesla is a hardcore technology company, which means that anyone leading a team of engineers must be an outstanding engineer themself, as well as a good leader. Chris demonstrated exactly that in his prior role at Aston Martin, creating in the One-77 what was arguably their best car ever.”
He joins Apple a lot more quietly than with a press release. We are told by sources with knowledge of the matter at Apple that he joins the company as “Special Projects Group PD Administrator” – an intentionally vague title. Last year, Apple hired a senior engineer working on Tesla’s Autopilot program, Jamie Carlson. He was also listed as a member of a special projects group.
We can confirm that some senior Apple engineers will be reporting directly to Porritt, including Product Development Engineering Director, Albert Golko, who until last year was working for the iPhone group and now on unspecified products. Emery Sanford is also said to report directly to Porritt now. Sanford is a prolific engineer named in dozens of Apple’s patents and who often worked directly with Zadesky, the exec believed to have been in charge of Project Titan until earlier this year.
While Apple has yet to officially acknowledge working on a car, it’s kind of an “open-secret” in the auto and tech industries that it is developing an electric (and possibly autonomous) vehicle.
http://9to5mac.com/2016/04/19/exclu...artin-chief-engineer-for-special-car-project/
EnI
Piston Pioneer
^
FAZ also reports Apple has opened a "secret development lab" in Berlin, Germany - with 15-20 top-notch specialists, snatched from various German carmakers, working on a new Apple car.
FAZ also reports new Apple car could be bulit in Magna Styer plant in Graz, Austria.
In the related news: Chinese EV start-up Future Mobility Corp (financed by Tencent Holdings, Foxconn etc) snatched core specialist team from BMW i: head designer (Benoit Jacob), head powertrain engineer (Dirk Abendroth) & head product manager (Henrik Wenders). Ouch!!!!
We are heading into a total war between IT companies & established carmakers. It's going to be ugly. But we, the customers, will be the real winners in the end.
FAZ also reports Apple has opened a "secret development lab" in Berlin, Germany - with 15-20 top-notch specialists, snatched from various German carmakers, working on a new Apple car.
FAZ also reports new Apple car could be bulit in Magna Styer plant in Graz, Austria.
In the related news: Chinese EV start-up Future Mobility Corp (financed by Tencent Holdings, Foxconn etc) snatched core specialist team from BMW i: head designer (Benoit Jacob), head powertrain engineer (Dirk Abendroth) & head product manager (Henrik Wenders). Ouch!!!!
We are heading into a total war between IT companies & established carmakers. It's going to be ugly. But we, the customers, will be the real winners in the end.
Bucketslash11
Das Beste Enthusiast
i fear that the result of this is that cars only become use and throw appliances like phones which you just switch out every 3rd year (or so) or when it's broken (no matter how easy it is to fix)
D
Deleted member 25
Holly shit, that's a massacre, how could they let that happen ?^
FAZ also reports Apple has opened a "secret development lab" in Berlin, Germany - with 15-20 top-notch specialist snatched from various German carmakers, working on a new Apple car.
FAZ also reports new Apple car could be bulit in Magna Styer plant in Graz, Austria.
In the related news: Chinese EV start-up Future Mobility Corp (financed by Tencent Holdings, Foxconn etc) snatched core specialist team from BMW i: head designer (Benoit Jacob), head powertrain engineer (Dirk Abendroth) & head product manager (Henrik Wenders). Ouch!!!!
We are heading into a total war between IT companies & established carmakers. It's going to be ugly. But we, the customers, will be the real winners in the end.
EnI
Piston Pioneer
IT corporate culture & the way of doing business is much bolder that the way carmakers operate. Not to mention the nature of start-ups which are much more appropriate form of doing business when it comes to new (IT) tech. Carmakers just don't get that! And that could kill them! They are convinced they are not in a hurry, and that the tech can be developed in a conventional way. But can it really be? I would not underestimate the fate of Olivetti, Kodak, Polaroid, Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola etc. And I hope carmakers won't either.
And as said many times: the biggest danger to the established carmakers is not Tesla but the IT megacorporations like Alphabet / Google, Apple, even Microsoft (they have enough capital though), Uber, Tencent etc.
Cars are turning into mobile devices - who can also transport you. Just like the turned from phones into cameras, voice recorders, audio & video players, word processors, organizers / PDAs, portable gaming consoles, etc etc - making all the separate specialized devices obsolete.
And that's the (new) paradigm carmakers have to adapt to. Cars as mobile devices - driven by software, offering various IT services. While hardware being just a "casing" for the software functionality.
But carmakers still focus on hardware too much. That's in their nature. Cars have always been about hardware. And turning to software & IT solutions is way too slow and to partial. They lack integral solutions - and that's why IT giants will be the winners of that war. It's inevitable.
The consolidation of the "smartcar" market will be as cruel & as bloody as the consolidation of the smartphones market has been. Many (once even leading) brands just died off.
Automotive sector will suffer some big loses.
Tesla proved how easy is to develop & build a superb EV - without redundant complications established carmakers did it. Technical layout of Tesla S is just brilliant - such a simple architecture & such simple solutions it's unbelievable. Because they were not restricted with old-fashioned car engineering thinking.
So, if Tesla - a complete newcomer - can master hardware so brilliantly ... that's scary!!!! Other carmakers - as hardware-makers - should be worry! Since EVs are obviously much smplier to engineer and to develop (and to manufacture) than overly complicated ICE cars (not to mention fuel-cell, CNG cars etc).
So, hardware for EVs can obviously can be easily developed - and manufactured: therefore manufacturing specialists like Magny Styer etc could easily become Foxconn of nex. gen automotive industry.
IT giants will only develop (mainly software) - while manufacturing specialists will build their products.
Some carmakers of today can turn into manufacturing specialists only - a big blow to thier own brands. Other will offer strictly specialized products. Many brands & carmakers will just vanish.
OK, I'm not worried for strong brands ... but many economy automotive brands will just vanish.
Automotive market in 2050 will look completely different than it looks today! Be aware!
And as said many times: the biggest danger to the established carmakers is not Tesla but the IT megacorporations like Alphabet / Google, Apple, even Microsoft (they have enough capital though), Uber, Tencent etc.
Cars are turning into mobile devices - who can also transport you. Just like the turned from phones into cameras, voice recorders, audio & video players, word processors, organizers / PDAs, portable gaming consoles, etc etc - making all the separate specialized devices obsolete.
And that's the (new) paradigm carmakers have to adapt to. Cars as mobile devices - driven by software, offering various IT services. While hardware being just a "casing" for the software functionality.
But carmakers still focus on hardware too much. That's in their nature. Cars have always been about hardware. And turning to software & IT solutions is way too slow and to partial. They lack integral solutions - and that's why IT giants will be the winners of that war. It's inevitable.
The consolidation of the "smartcar" market will be as cruel & as bloody as the consolidation of the smartphones market has been. Many (once even leading) brands just died off.
Automotive sector will suffer some big loses.
Tesla proved how easy is to develop & build a superb EV - without redundant complications established carmakers did it. Technical layout of Tesla S is just brilliant - such a simple architecture & such simple solutions it's unbelievable. Because they were not restricted with old-fashioned car engineering thinking.
So, if Tesla - a complete newcomer - can master hardware so brilliantly ... that's scary!!!! Other carmakers - as hardware-makers - should be worry! Since EVs are obviously much smplier to engineer and to develop (and to manufacture) than overly complicated ICE cars (not to mention fuel-cell, CNG cars etc).
So, hardware for EVs can obviously can be easily developed - and manufactured: therefore manufacturing specialists like Magny Styer etc could easily become Foxconn of nex. gen automotive industry.
IT giants will only develop (mainly software) - while manufacturing specialists will build their products.
Some carmakers of today can turn into manufacturing specialists only - a big blow to thier own brands. Other will offer strictly specialized products. Many brands & carmakers will just vanish.
OK, I'm not worried for strong brands ... but many economy automotive brands will just vanish.
Automotive market in 2050 will look completely different than it looks today! Be aware!
klier
Premium
I see, I see. Wow, I wish I knew as much as you do. Incredible piece of inside info there man, thanks!
Wolfgang
Kraftwagen König
FCA and Google may agree on synchromodal transport with intelligent minivans?
"Public transit executives could be buying autonomous minivans rather than expensive buses," Urmson said during a public meeting on autonomous regulations held by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Palo Alto, California. "Federal standards determine what kinds of vehicles cities can use for transit. This needs attention."
http://www.autoblog.com/2016/04/28/google-fca-self-driving-minivan-partnership/
https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/me...itching-a-ride-through-the-physical-internet/
"Public transit executives could be buying autonomous minivans rather than expensive buses," Urmson said during a public meeting on autonomous regulations held by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Palo Alto, California. "Federal standards determine what kinds of vehicles cities can use for transit. This needs attention."
http://www.autoblog.com/2016/04/28/google-fca-self-driving-minivan-partnership/
https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/me...itching-a-ride-through-the-physical-internet/
Touring
Precision Tuner
If the American and Chinese IT business are so far ahead, Why are they recruiting so many engineers from the European car industry then?
I think we forget cars are mainly hardware. You just can't fix everything with an over-the-air software update. Look at the tesla X, they can't even make the doors and seats work properly. I own a new Tesla, and an i3 and BMW F31, so I know from experience.
I think we forget cars are mainly hardware. You just can't fix everything with an over-the-air software update. Look at the tesla X, they can't even make the doors and seats work properly. I own a new Tesla, and an i3 and BMW F31, so I know from experience.
