According to “The New York Times,” the late Steve Jobs wanted to make an “iCar.” He purportedly told John Markoff of The New York Times that if he had more energy, he would have liked to take on Detroit with an Apple car.
And, in August, during the company’s patent trial with Samsung, Philip W. Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president for worldwide product marketing, said that Apple had explored making “crazy stuff” before the development of the iPhone and iPad, including a camera or a car. What’s more, several years ago there were rumors that Apple would work with Volkswagen to build a car.
Then there’s past comments by J. Crew CEO and Apple board member, Mickey Drexler. He says that, indeed, Jobs’s eventual dream was to create an Apple-branded iCar.
“Look at the car industry; it’s a tragedy in America,” he said. “Who is designing the cars? Steve’s dream before he died was to design an iCar … It would’ve been probably 50% of the market. He [Jobs] never did design it.”
As I’ve said before, Apple isn’t going to make an automobile on its own. If an iCar were coming, it would involve our favorite tech company partnering with an automotive company. Tesla (www.teslamotors.com), a maker of premium electric vehicles, would be a natural fit, though we’ve still a ways to go before electric cars become mainstream.
In fact, as noted by “MSN” (http://tinyurl.com/a9afekd), there are already grounds for a relationship between Apple and Tesla. George Blankenship, Tesla’s vice president of worldwide sales and ownership experience, is a former Apple guy. Tesla’s retail experience is a direct result of Blankenship’s time at Apple.
I think that Apple could have a much larger impact consulting on the computer tech for vehicles, not just cars. Of course, who knows what could happen? Eddy Cue and Phil Schiller, top level Apple execs, are both big time car aficionados) and Cue is on Ferrari’s board of directors), so maybe I’m wrong about the iCar.
Would you like an iCar? If I could afford it, I would. I think Siri integration would be cool and useful. And it could integrate the iOS Maps app.
Well, maybe not the Maps app. iCar drivers might be lost much of the time.
Read more of the Times article at http://tinyurl.com/ahouem6 . By the way, the cool iCar mock-up with this article is courtesy of Search for Technology (http://tinyurl.com/b2l54w8).
