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And why would any OEM want to partner with Apple again? For those that have followed Apple for a while, the fact that they’re not able to find a willing OEM ‘partner’ to help them build the Apple car is not surprising – at all. Companies that are obsessive about design are normally control freaks, even moreso than your average ‘successful’ company. Apple is no different. There is no lack of confidence coming from the Apple team.
There is a companywide belief that each and every product that comes out of Cupertino IS going to be a hit, and the fact that their products are obsessed about the world over reinforces this (with the exception of the post below). Their formula for product design, marketing, and branding works well. For computers, tablets, watches, phones, and entertainment services at least.
Bottom line, there is NO company that wants to build a car to Apple’s specs and then have a vehicle that they themselves have designed, engineered, and manufactured; whether in Germany, the US, China, Japan, or Korea, go head-to-head with the Apple car that they had a hand in building!
Finally, and I know this is pretty obvious but I’ll say it anyway - Cars are a whole new ball game for Apple. Not in a disrupt the ‘old watch industry’ kind of way though. This IS different so just ‘Thinking’ different isn’t going to cut it in this case. This is really where they need the combined hit-making capabilities of Steve and Jony. Unfortunately, neither of them is there anymore.
For Apple to think that they’d do it ‘better’ than all of the current carmakers out there doesn’t surprise me because against most, I believe they could. But taking the metaphorical ‘steering wheel’ away from an OEM that’s been successful at building AND selling cars for the last 50-100 years and telling THEM how to do it (That’s the key: Apple has to both design and sell), seems a bit naïve and problematic.
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What is wrong with Didi’s vetting process for drivers? There have now been multiple tragedies over the last 4 years that have involved Didi drivers. Assurances by Didi management and changes to Didi’s driver vetting process and the rollout of improved rider safety features after the first couple of serious incidents in 2018 obviously still didn’t go far not enough to prevent the most recent tragedy.
This time, a Didi driver got into an argument with a passenger and tragically ran the passenger over after he’d gotten out, killing him. I use Didi quite often but I wonder now outside of the larger cities is it a safe service? It makes me very uneasy to think that my wife and children use it sometimes as well. Something needs to change drastically at Didi or their reputation among customers and the Chinese govt will put that $60B valuation and pending IPO in jeopardy.
These supply shortages mean that the sourcing, materials, logistics, and planning folks will be earning their keep for the foreseeable future because supply shortages put production behind taking sometimes months to catch up that lost production.
Back when I worked in GM’s Production Control & Logistics (PC&L) group (which no longer exists), I learned how to ‘chase’ parts. In other words, my job was to babysit suppliers to make sure that parts were shipped according to the master production schedule (MPS) and arrive at the specified time in the quantities that were ordered. No more no less. No more because that meant additional inventory that would sit on our ‘books’ and that, unless we increased production and reduced our orders in equal amounts, those excess parts would never be bled out of the system. No less because that meant I had to chase a ‘partial’ aka a partial shipment that would make the order whole.
Most folks don’t understand and hence don’t appreciate the level of coordination it takes to keep manufacturing plants going without interruption AND without additional costs associated with running it. That’s called efficiency. OEMs are some of the best at this, running plants efficiently, and at capacity which most in the industry will tell you is well over 90%. One small issue affects the entire operation, hence the name ‘supply chain.’ In the current situation, most OEMs' supply chains will take some time to get back to running efficiently.
- Automakers should be studying carefully
what Canoo is doing and making the case for flexible design that allows for both narrow & wide use cases to drive their next generation of EVs. The automakers have much of what Canoo does not. Scale, a marketing machine, qualified suppliers, manufacturing know-how, and a captive audience of current customers.
Each of those qualities creates such a huge advantage! IF they could only learn how to use it. While we’re at it, why wouldn’t one of the OEMs that are cash-rich acquire Canoo? Their current market capitalization of ~$3.7B doesn’t seem too unreasonable, although with all the SPAC craziness, it’s difficult to justify most of these EV & mobility-related company's valuations.
There is nothing in ANY legacy OEM’s portfolio that’s doing what Canoo is doing with the exception of Bright Drop perhaps? But Canoo has taken it a step further and really leaned into the box design and carried it out to the use cases of everyday people. Who knows whether Canoo’s business model will work but their vehicles seem to be designed and thought out pretty well, they could just look at this as an acquihire, something that’s not that unusual in Silicon Valley but isn’t utilized much in the auto sector.
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E-bikes becoming a real player in the EU & US. Just not yet in China. Bikes sales have grown 65% in 2019-20 but e-bike popularity has been on another planet altogether and has grown by 145% in the US! The EU is seeing huge growth as well so if this growth continues, which the folks that study bicycle usage seem to suggest it will, what needs to happen to cities in order to accommodate this type of ‘transportation’ evolution?
Most large American cities are currently optimized for individual passenger vehicles. Just look at the # of gas stations, parking spaces, and street lights in a city like Chicago alone. Also, the current layout of New York City doesn’t allow for that high of an e-bike take rate unless there are major revamps to the system.
This should be seen as a tremendous opportunity though since this type of growth also implies that there will be many fewer passenger vehicles on the roads. This could mean parking lots can be rehabbed and parts of the city can be taken back and converted to green space, low-income housing, or anything else that benefits the city’s citizens.
With the gridlock in the US though, will there be an appetite for these types of revolutionary changes in how we live, work, and commute? Maybe, but it’ll also take a big change in how we think about transportation and mobility and that might be the toughest reset of all.
I am NO city planning expert by any stretch but it’s been something I’ve been learning more about recently sitting in on some Clubhouse rooms and reading more reports and studies about what cities around the world are doing to better understand what’s possible. And it’s a lot. If local govts. have the appetite to place the needs of their citizens ahead of making their cities more ‘car’ friendly.
- A Silicon Valley-based connected car and location-based services company named
Telenav will provide navigation and location-based services to SAIC’s battery-powered vehicles in the European & Southeast Asian markets including Australia / New Zealand. For those wondering, there still seems to be tremendous opportunities for US & Chinese companies to cooperate, specifically outside of the US & Chinese markets. SAIC’s footprint outside of China is not that substantial but their ambition is so this could become a very lucrative relationship for Telenav.
I would argue all isn’t lost and that the skills the product team developed by designing and manufacturing the HomePod serves them well in other products and services currently sold or that will be for sale in the future. Everyone I know who got one was NOT disappointed in sound quality, fit and finish or its ability to connect seamlessly into the Apple ecosystem.
But that wasn’t enough to save it from getting axed this week. When it launched, I too thought I ‘had to have it” and while in the US, had it in my online Best Buy ‘shopping cart’ but I didn’t buy it. I guess I should check out all the closeouts on it now though.
As has been mentioned numerous times in the past, putting robotaxis on the road is a herculean challenge that requires a TON of capital, patience, and a bunch of really smart people and even then, there’s no guarantee for success.
There will continue to be consolidation as more and more of the smaller players find fundraising more difficult as they run out of capital. We don’t know what the transaction closed at, but it seems like a good move for Cruise since this isn’t a segment they were targeting, it supplements their team with folks working on the same problem, albeit from a different angle, and gives their ML tool more data. We all know you gotta feed the beast if you plan on catching up to Waymo and plan on making any money on AVs in the future.
BTW, as mentioned above - You can look at this as one of those acquihires that often happens in Silicon Valley. This could be a tool the legacy automaker could use to bolster their SW development chops. Acquihiring a small, but great agency. Actually, I predict that it’s going to happen within the next 18 months by at least one or two automakers.
