Why a car though? I understand Apple are all about the mobile now, but a car? I suspect it isnt a car, but maybe some sort of information or auto navigation intergrations.
No, I hate my Prius because there are so many little things that make it obnoxious to use. When I first bought it, after a day I took it back to the dealership and told them to either disable to "beep" that it did when in reverse or take the car back. They disabled the beep but, speaking of beeps; my god the beeping! It has a nice feature that when I get out of the car all I need do to lock it is touch the handle and it'll lock all the doors. Except if one door is still open and then it will play a constant beep for about 10 seconds which is, simply put, infuriating. Doesn't help that my son takes forever to get out of a car for some reason.
Almost every button on the console is backlit, as one would expect, except for the gear shifter. No, in order to light that, they put a light on the ceiling of the car that shines down on the shifter so you can see it at night. Why? Why not backlight the shifter like all the buttons around it?
It's for these and many, many other reasons I'm looking forward to an Apple Car. Apple's attention to detail. That's not to say Apple is perfect in this regard (I'm thinking of the Podcasts app, as one example) But it's clear that Toyota along with the other old-guard auto manufacturers have somehow gotten lazy or can't get out of their own way.
It's nice to see fresh ideas come out of the likes of Tesla (manufacturing quality notwithstanding) and I'm looking forward to seeing what Apple comes up with.
I'm not, however, looking forward to that inevitable giant price tag.
That’s a good fit for Apple and the others in this space (except for tesla) have no ability to execute on software (or even EVs really). The old car companies are dumb and slow and their industrial design mostly sucks. [0]
I think it makes sense, particularly if you model the future as autonomous vehicles and AR as the next platform.
People will be in their cars using their Apple devices and doing other things while in transit. The car will be a lot different than today in that future and Apple wants to be part of that design.
This is a massive winner take all (or possibly duopoly) market in a way similar to phone platforms.
[edit] In the US the dealership model hamstrings legacy car manufacturers from making important changes. These dealerships have legislated their existence and block things like OTA updates. They're staffed largely by people who dislike EVs and don't really understand the product. This is another big problem for any legacy manufacturer trying to make a big shift.
[0]: For an example of dumbness, GM bought Cruise (smart) and then relegated them to a single product at the edge of their line (dumb). They don't realize what they have or the existential threat they face. I don't hold out hope for any of them.
I guess the theme is "things which exist but could be made better by integrating the Apple ecosystem (esp in ways that other vendors can't compete against for lack of a comparable ecosystem), and for which people will pay a premium".
Rumors are that Apple is working on VR Glove & AR glasses.
They're taking things that people use every day and cramming as much functionality into software as their hardware will allow.
Sort of joking sort of not: Eventually there will people wearing full sets of Apple accessories, getting into their Apple car, driving to an Apple home... And all the technology will be seamless (or as seamless as they can make it based on their current track record.)