But this would be their 4th car. Tesla has been in the car industry for 13 years, building brand awareness.
Additionally, a lot of the people still buy Teslas with the motivation of saving the environment and abandoning fossil fuels. Where as hopefully Apple would just make an all around superior car.
> Tesla has been in the car industry for 13 years, building brand awareness.
... and building domain expertise. Apple is at the top of the smartphone game and still gets manufacturing significantly wrong at times - see the bendy iphone or the antenna-case that can't call if you hold it the wrong way. Jumping the fence to the world of vehicles is a brand new domain to make mistakes in.
Keep in mind also that Apple has gone back on things they've said in the past. Radios in ipods were never going to happen, then they did. Mocked users of a stylus, then released Pencil. The iPhone is the perfect size for your hand... then they embiggened it. Getting it right the first time is something Apple sometimes does, and sometimes fails at.
Apple has also released a lot of turkeys over the years that people conveniently forget about. I just can't see them jumping the fence to a significantly different product domain and simply beating everyone else there at the game.
Could you name one of the turkeys? Sure, some of the things you name weren't ideal, but I don't think they bothered most people and it certainly didn't seem to hit the bottom line.
If you want to save the environment, a Leaf or Prius is far cheaper and has been around much longer than the Model 3 will have been. It's mostly a status symbol masquerading as an environmental benefit, something that I think Apple could play to easily.
Additionally, a lot of the people still buy Teslas with the motivation of saving the environment and abandoning fossil fuels. Where as hopefully Apple would just make an all around superior car.