
Apple Veteran Overseeing Electric-Car Project Leaving Company - coloneltcb
http://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-veteran-overseeing-electric-car-project-leaving-company-1453505241
======
zipwitch
Didn't Neal Stephenson predict this decades ago?

"There was a competing bicycle dealership next door (Apple) that one day began
selling motorized vehicles--expensive but attractively styled cars with their
innards hermetically sealed, so that how they worked was something of a
mystery." _In the Beginning, was the Command Line_

~~~
newjersey
For perspective, I'd like to invite readers to this 2004 update by another
author

[http://garote.bdmonkeys.net/commandline/](http://garote.bdmonkeys.net/commandline/)

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at-fates-hands
Never a good sign of someone like this leaving the company, regardless of the
reason.

I would probably say he's either burned out or was tasked with something that
he feels the company can't deliver on and has decided to just cut bait and
move on. I'm sure it will be spun by Apple's PR as a "mutual" parting of the
ways and something about "leaving to focus more on his family". A few years
from now, we'll get a clearer picture. Even in the article they mentioned
unrealistic time lines.

I'm still not sure how I feel about Apple getting into electric cars. It's
kind of like your favorite metal band suddenly decides to make pop music.

~~~
orionblastar
Apple getting into electric cars hasn't gotten an official word on that yet.
They are still trying to invent the technology for self driving electric cars,
with a goal for 2019. They might just license the IP to the other car makers
if they find they can't make the cars themselves.

Some states like Michigan have laws that if you sell cars in their state you
have to make the car in their state. So Apple would have to build a factory in
Michigan to sell cars there like all of the rest. Smart phones, tablets,
computers don't have that requirement and can still be made in China.

About 6 years ago I tried to get money for what I called the iAuto device that
ran Android and replaced a car stereo and did GPS and played music and videos
and other stuff. But I couldn't get it crowdfunded. I figure if Apple can't
make electronic cars, they'll make a device like the iAuto based in iOS that
replaces a stereo in cars and runs apps and can even use smart cars to auto
park and collision detection and other stuff.

~~~
mandeepj
ever heard about car play?
[http://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/](http://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/)

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Animats
Any indication of Apple talking to manufacturing companies in China about
building cars?

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ksec
Highly unlikely, producing a phone is very different to producing a car. Car
manufacturing line is extremely automated. It is highly likely that Apple will
built its plant in US.

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eslaught
Sorry for being a noob, but if car manufacturing can be automated like this,
why can't phones be automated in the same way?

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AndrewKemendo
Humans are cheaper than robots for things the size of a phone. You would need
a lot of humans to pick up and move a unibody car frame so the economics and
ergonomics don't work out the same.

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chris_wot
I wonder what A123 founders think of this?

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vskarine
skip paywall:
[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiJrvqq1L7KAhUUSmMKHStNAlUQqQIIHDAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fapple-
veteran-overseeing-electric-car-project-leaving-
company-1453505241&usg=AFQjCNG4nvpIDHRwWfmk5lbZZfPUHqGrPg&sig2=78SELzcTR2YWT_6uB8S0pA&bvm=bv.112454388,d.cGc)

~~~
tyre
The "web" link below the title links there.

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eridius
The "web" link just links to a google search for the phrase "Apple Veteran
Overseeing Electric-Car Project Leaving Company". At the moment Google is
surfacing the WSJ article as the first link in a section called "In the news",
but that may not be true for anyone looking at this story in the future.

~~~
mikeyouse
For every article I've ever tried, entering the exact phrase of the WSJ
article results in the top Google result being the article in question. I
think it's pretty safe given WSJ's SEO work.

~~~
dredmorbius
And for virtually every WSJ post to HN, I _cannot_ access copy via Google
search.

HN don't take kindly to flagging. But really, either play social or go home.

~~~
jrockway
If you really enjoy reading the WSJ, you could just pay for it, you know. Then
no "hacks" are necessary.

~~~
dredmorbius
If WSJ want to restrict readership to subscribers only, there's no need to
feed them hits via social platforms.

There's a quid pro quo here.

And no, actually, I'm not interested in supporting Murdoch/NewsCorp in the
least.

