Apple Set Out To Make An EV Much More Than A ‘Tesla Clone’ And Let Slip Of ‘Multibillion-Dollar Moneymaker,’ Says Gurman

Wrong Bet: “Apple’s belief that it could create a better car than Tesla and the rest of the automotive industry ultimately led to the downfall of the project,” said Gurman in his latest installment of the “Power On” newsletter.

When Cupertino set out to make a car roughly a decade ago, it was toying with the idea of either building a less ambitious electric vehicle with autonomy features in line with Tesla models or change the world with a “full-blown self-driving vehicle,” said the columnist. The latter option would mean having a car that could go from one point to another with zero driver intervention, he added.

Apple went with the second approach and that proved to be a setback, Gurman said.

“All those years ago, the company thought it could solve a problem (full self-driving) that the auto industry is still struggling to crack today – all while introducing a groundbreaking design. That challenge proved too difficult for even Apple to overcome,” he said.’

Although introducing a “Tesla clone” wouldn’t have revolutionized the industry, such a car would have still “reflected Apple’s design chops and be fully integrated into the company’s ecosystem of products,” Gurman said.

Apple realized its mistake a little too late and by that time the design work had already been focused on a car without steering wheels or pedals, and billions of dollars had already been plowed into developing a Level 5 self-driving system, the Apple columnist said.