I agree with you, but Tesla did get things in gear fast enough to ship cars, early. If Apple's car ships in 2028 (and that's optimistic), then they'll be 20 years late to Tesla's party. The early mover advantage is worth something, not what investors value it at but still a hefty sum.
Apple could spin up a joint venture with, say, Rivian or even Ford for 1/10th of that tomorrow.
I’ll be honest, I think the whole Apple car thing is a pipe dream. Apple doesn’t have some sort of magic that is two decades beyond anybody else driving in circles underneath their weird spaceship campus. If they have their own full self driving, it doesn’t matter who assembles the car. They can sell the tech to everybody.
But isn't the Apple way to combine hardware and software better than anyone else?
I've only ever bought an Apple tableet for my wife, so I've got no bias here. But I'd be keen to see what they can produce. If only to differentiate the market up a bit ... it's as boring as hell at the moment and why I haven't pulled the trigger on one.
Tesla is now moving into making their cars cheaper, with exceptional results. That's leveraging your first mover advantage: compete where others can't, because your manufacturing process is mature.
You don’t have to look any further than the Cybertruck to see evidence that Tesla builds cars it wants to build, not what the market wants. This worked to their advantage when no one else was building an EV but now it’s their biggest liability. They could have captured a highly valuable truck or even light pickup market if they just produced something practical. Instead, they launched something like what you see as a concept at the Detroit Autoshow. It’s an art project, and a vain one at that.
They created a sex symbol which manages to include surprising practicality and insane technology. I've been excited about many concept cars, and now I get to buy one, and I know I'm not alone. It's a halo product, but a good one.
