[oh-4-fucks-sake]

2-3 years ago, I was thinking something similar along the lines of "yeah, why doesn't Apple just stick with computers/phones/peripherals/software." But if anything's become clear in the last few years in the EV market are issues with: reliability, software/firmware, usability, aesthetics, build-quality, and high startup capital requirements. Apple is a perennial expert UX/design/durability/usability. Sure there's been a few boondoggles over slight decreases in QA and quality (butterfly keyboards)--but at the end of the day, most of us still love at least some of their products because they still, usually "just work". Apple is also quite good (whether or not you like it) at building walled gardens. Imagine if Apple released a rock-solid car and an absolutely kick-ass charging network that rivals Tesla's? There's be demand. The biggest, most-obvious reason why Apple could succeed at building a car is that they have massive amounts of cash. The #1 reason these fly-by-night EV startups fail is because they can't handle 5-10 years of negative margins coupled with massive capital costs. Apple could burn billions before their EV division becomes profitable and not even blink.

[Angostura]

I's add "privacy" to your list

[mmcconnell1618]

I wonder if Apple has been secretly acquiring land or negotiating leases for a charging network. That would be a significant chunk of infrastructure to add to their services segment. Apple One -> Now includes charging your vehicle at no additional cost.

[DSingularity]

And what brought about this idea?

Seems absurd frankly. How would they even approach this task? Something like this is either organic, gradual, and before you are famous or it is stealth and as wide as possible.

I don’t see them pulling something like this off without everyone noticing.

[refulgentis]

"No one knew what the iPod was for either" is a sort of Godwin-for-Apple-speculation. Once you cross the Rubicon where that's invoked, with no other argument provided, it's been signalled it's rational to connect any dot.

But yeah, it's novel that Tim Cook's Apple would lean into something Wall Street would abhor - a low-margin capital-intensive business - for something that sounds out of date (L2 in 2028, n.b. Mercedes is at L3 on highways, even assumes liability. Elon would tell you Tesla is L3, YMMV)

[doublerebel]

Apple already is a major investor and builder of renewable energy farms around the world. They won’t even have to buy the energy, they will already have it.

[behnamoh]

That'd be Apple One Pro. I definitely see them starting to "tierify" their services just like they did their iPhones, Visions, iPads, Macs, etc.

[int_19h]

When it comes to core UX, the current-gen iPhones and iPads are less usable than Androids. For one thing, this whole idea of swiping from beyond the edge of the screen, in many places without even a visible indicator that it's an available gesture, to do the most basic stuff like opening Home, is a severe regression compared to simple buttons; and it's even worse because some of the swipe gestures do different things depending on how far you swipe. To be fair, Android also introduced this misfeature, but at least you get a checkbox to restore the old behavior.