Elon Musk’s prophecy nearly 10 years ago with Apple came true: Producing cars is not as easy as phones

Now is the time when Elon Musk can smile and say: “I told you so”.

In 2015, when information about Apple’s secret electric car development project was revealed, Mr. Elon Musk at that time warned that car production would be much more complicated than smartphones and smartwatches. But at that time, many people probably considered it just a joke, when Tesla itself was struggling with countless financial and output difficulties. Time has proven that Musk’s warnings were no exaggeration.

Nearly a decade later, the world witnessed many reports showing that Apple – a symbol of innovation and success in the technology industry – was forced to abandon its self-driving electric car project after spending about 10 billion. USD for it. This is not the first time Apple has killed a product development project, but they have never been forced to abandon a project that consumed so much time and money.

Mr. Musk’s tweet when he learned of Apple’s termination of the electric car project

This is even more remarkable because Apple is not a company that likes to jump into a new field without careful preparation. However, the desire to create “the next big thing” – a product capable of reshaping the future like the iPhone did, motivated them to persistently pursue this self-driving electric vehicle project.

Even though Mr. Musk was right in 2015 about the complexity of manufacturing cars “compared to cell phones or smartwatches, you can’t just go to a manufacturer like Foxconn (Apple sign partner). iPhone production agreement) to ask them to produce a car.” But now the situation is different, with the explosion of the global electric vehicle market, many companies have participated in the field of electric vehicle assembly – including Foxconn itself.

But if we compare the level of technological maturity at the time the iPhone was launched and the current electric car. By the time the iPhone launched, most of the underlying technologies were already in place – multi-touch capacitive touchscreens, sensor chips, positioning chips, sensors like gyroscopes, accelerometers, and more. Proximity sensor, light, camera, ARM processor chip, battery…

The image is said to be Apple’s self-driving electric car prototype

As for electric cars, Apple’s ambition is not just to create an electric car. With Tesla at the forefront, every electric car is turning into a mobile computer, Apple wants something more – a mobile computer capable of fully self-driving – an ambition so big that it goes beyond when the project started was rumored but also in the present.

It involves so many different technologies, most importantly sensors and cameras around the car along with a computer brain – a high-end artificial intelligence – that can recognize obstacles on the road and control them. vehicle safely. Those technologies still seem to be a long way from the present, which is not easy to overcome.

Waymo’s self-driving taxi service is being deployed in a limited number of cities in the US

Difficulties come not only from developing self-driving technology, but also from ensuring safety, system integration, and meeting strict legal regulations. Currently, only Waymo – a subsidiary of Google – is considered closest to the goal of creating a self-driving electric car without the need for a human and even deploying a self-driving taxi service. However, they still face many difficulties in obtaining a license to expand their operations.

This proves that manufacturing cars, especially self-driving electric cars, is a challenging task, requiring high specialization and long-term experience in the industry. Apple’s decision to abandon this project is not only a reminder of the complexity of the auto industry but also reflects the fact that not every field of technology can be conquered easily. .

Musk’s warning from nearly a decade ago has come true, but also shows Apple that many other more attractive paths are opening up. The tech world is turning many other utopias into reality, namely generative artificial intelligence and virtual/augmented reality – but lack the ability to make it available to the general public – something Apple is very good at.

After closing the electric vehicle project, Apple is transferring personnel to the AI development department to take advantage of hardware integration capabilities as well as strengthen the capacity of this department. Apple’s new Vision Pro mixed reality glasses are also making a splash in the market, opening up a bright future for popularizing this special technology to the public.