[ericd]

But they don’t have all the core competencies in house. I don’t think manufacturing a small, mostly solid state rectangles with maybe one major stress bearing hinge is the same as manufacturing a highly dynamic multi-ton steel machine that is meant to transport people 200,000 miles over a decade or two any more than an aluminum smelting firm could suddenly dominate glass manufacturing if they decided to.

[ActorNightly]

They don't have to have it in house. You can pay external companies to design shit for you, and manufacture it.

Tesla does everything in house because they need to keep costs low to stay profitable. Apple doesn't.

[ericd]

I don’t think it’s really Apple’s MO to outsource product design to any significant extent, though they do use a lot of contract manufacturing, my understanding is that they dictate how a lot of that’s done. Their brand is all about quality and seamless integration between everything, you don’t get that without being involved in every aspect.

[ActorNightly]

They won't outsource design, but they can outsource the engineering needed to make that design safe. Its not like the "boutique car from a consumer electronics" market is saturated, they can take more risks in regards to info leaking.