This comment implicitly rests on the fallacy, learned the hard way by Tesla, that making electric vehicles is just like making any other electronic thing.
When is the last time an electronic mfg had to deal with a billion dollar lawsuit because they didn't follow industry best practices for design like Toyota did after the acceleration scandal? Does Apple have experience with the NHTSB or other relevant regulatory agencies? Sure, there is a lot of gatekeeping in the auto industry, but it's for good reason. Cars can and do regularly kill people. It is not the same as making an iPhone.
Apple has been on the receiving end of literally dozens of billion dollar lawsuits from many many companies. They battle lawsuits every day for IP infringement, to trade craft, to patents - and have over 200 in-house lawyers.
Yes, and? Does that shield them from liability in situations where legal precedent is against them? Are you saying that Apple is immune from any sort of liability claim? If my Earpods explode while I'm wearing them, Apple's 200 in-house lawyers will protect them even if they intentionally ignored safe design principles?
They can make phones because they hire/hired experts who can make phones. I doubt they would use those same electrical engineers to design the brake systems. I don't think there's anything evidence to suggest that they couldn't acquire/hire the right talent.
What will Apple do when the talent they hire tells them their CPUs and software are incompatible with ISO 26262, MISRA, and industry accepted safety and reliability standards? Will Apple accept the timelines they have to adhere to in order to produce a safe vehicle? Will they try to take shortcuts and expose themselves to liability?
> What will Apple do when the talent they hire tells them their CPUs and software are incompatible with ISO 26262, MISRA, and industry accepted safety and reliability standards?
I think you have an incredible misunderstanding of the the due diligence/research that these multi trillion dollar, publicly traded, companies go through to estimate costs/risks of their endeavors.
> 2014 when it first started to design its own vehicle from scratch. At one point, Apple drew back the effort to focus on software and reassessed its goals.
Looks like that due diligence wasn't diligent enough. But hey, what do I know? I must have an incredible misunderstanding. How could it be anything else?
Personally I don't buy the rumor because I think Apple is smart enough to avoid making their own cars. I think they already learned, by trial and error, that cars are tougher than they look.
When is the last time an electronic mfg had to deal with a billion dollar lawsuit because they didn't follow industry best practices for design like Toyota did after the acceleration scandal? Does Apple have experience with the NHTSB or other relevant regulatory agencies? Sure, there is a lot of gatekeeping in the auto industry, but it's for good reason. Cars can and do regularly kill people. It is not the same as making an iPhone.