How do the Chinese Autonomous Industries Get Their Hands? The Case of A Feela, Xiaomi, Chery, Luxeed, Huawei and Apple
Project Titan was given a requirement by the top executives to put up or shut up. The self-driven cars were out, and Level 2 ADAS was in. The launch date was pushed to 2028.
To be sure, developing a suite of hardware and software needed to enable a car to drive itself always seemed more aligned with Apple’s capabilities than building a whole damn car from scratch. The company made some progress there and released a small seven-page safety report to federal regulators.
Designing and manufacturing a car is complex work. To pull it off, global auto manufacturers generally maintain relationships with thousands of suppliers responsible for their own individual hardware or software widgets. It seems that Apple is better off without that particular problem.
The senior vice president and chief innovation officer at the Center for Automotive Research says partnerships are important for any tech company trying to break into the automotive space. He says that the same thing is true for any car manufacturer trying to compete with the tech natives.
Partnerships, however, have been the crux of other tech-car schemes. A Feela is an electric prototype that will be manufactured by a joint venture between Sony and Honda. During a visit to Honda’s Ohio assembly plant, Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida confirmed that working together was the right move for the electronics company. He said that it would be difficult to do on our own. You do actually need a partner, it turns out.
Chinese smartphone-makers are particularly eager to break into selling cars, with the hopes of propping up flagging phone sales. Many of them are teaming with traditional auto players to do it. Xiaomi unveiled its first electric vehicle late last year and has announced its intention to become a top global automaker, with a manufacturing assist from state-owned automaker BAIC Group. Baidu is working with the Geely Holding Group on its EV. Telecoms giant Huawei and manufacturer Chery Automobile unveiled an electric car last November under the new brand Luxeed.
We are focused on the systems with a sense of self. Cook said that self-driving cars are one of the purposes of the systems. “And we sort of see it as the mother of all AI projects. It’s probably one of the most difficult AI projects actually to work on and so autonomy is something that’s incredibly exciting for us, but we’ll see where it takes us.”
Wall Street was always wary of Apple because it had more negatives than positives. Dan Ives applauded Apple for taking care of the band-aid and it was a good move for the company. Morgan Stanley said the company focused on what mattered and showed cost discipline.
It’s not a surprise that the demise of the Apple car coincides with a bleaker outlook for electric and autonomous vehicles. The industry promised that battery- powered, self- driving vehicles would eventually dominate personal transportation but is experiencing growing pains. Model lineups are canceled and investments are being reined in. Pure EV plays are struggling to find customers because most people are looking for something more affordable, or hedging their bets with a hybrid.
How Apple fought Waymo and Cruise in the First Three Years of Autonomous Vehicles: The Case Against Elsewhere
If Apple were to suddenly parachute onto this stage, the tech giant would likely confront similar headwinds, said Sam Abuelsamid, principal analyst at Guidehouse Insights.
But Apple never really caught up to its rivals, who had been working on this problem longer and with more resources to spend. It did not obtain a permit to operate its vehicles with safety drivers in the front seat. The company’s fleet size remained the same. But Apple stuck to it. Last year, the company bested Waymo and Cruise in the rate of increase of miles traveled by its autonomous vehicles, The Washington Post reported.
But it’s the next step, and the step after that, that proved too daunting. Given the company’s control freakiness, the only way Apple could make this work was likely as a closed robotaxi ecosystem, perhaps as a monthly subscription service. It is a business model that is not yet proven. Even Musk can’t seem to make the math work.