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Tesla - Apple


Jeff Wexler

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Pure speculation at this point and only one person's prediction --- still quite intriguing

 

Apple Inc. To Buy Tesla For $75 Billion In 18 Months: Calacanis

 

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Calacanis’ prediction is based on Apple’s interest in building cars and Tim Cook’s obsession with clean energy
 
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) rarely makes big-ticket acquisitions. Its biggest ever purchase was the $3 billion deal for Beats Electronics. But angel investor and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis predicts that the Cupertino company would pay a staggering $75 billion to buy Tesla in the next 18 months. Rumors have been doing rounds for more than a year that Apple was interested in buying Tesla.
 

 

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I don't see why not. My brother is a Shop Foreman for Toyota and is now considering moving over to Tesla. I was talking to him about this over the weekend and he mentioned that all Tesla vehicles communicate with the mothership and advise of tech issues/etc. before the driver may be aware of it. Apparently Toyota purchased some of their battery technology so every once and a while they'll get a call from Tesla advising them one of their Prius vehicles needs to be called in for service. I guess the direction they're heading is to have cars drive themselves. I can see how Apple would want to jump on something like this. Just think, we could be sipping on Martini's and watching Netflix in the car. Or even better, we can be on JWsoundgroup.net while heading to the next gig. Bringing us one step closer to everyone being patched into the network and eventually becoming one of these. HAHA (ok, its a stretch. I know)

 

Picard_as_Locutus.jpg

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Well, seems like a good idea to me. How many iPhones have been sold in the 6 years or so they have existed? Imagine how many people could drive a Tesla in say ten years. Apple seems like the perfect partner for them. The original iPhone was leaps ahead of the competition. Tesla is too, in some (environmental, mostly) aspects.

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Intriguing concept.

...But, how they'll fit those things into Apple stores boggles the mind.

Ha!

 

My one BIG concern is if this does happen what will the patent situation be? Tesla and Apple have wildly differing opinions on protecting patents. Tesla basically released all their patents some time back, pretty much making them open source. Apple, as we know, is very litigious, and guards their patents closely. I'd hate to see Apple get their hands on Tesla and invent all kinds of new stuff and not be as open with their patents as Tesla currently is. I'd also hate to have a car running on Yosemite. It might screw up the hard drive like Yosemite did to my SSD drive....Also, based on personal experience, Apple Maps isn't anywhere close to where Wayze and Google maps are, and I would imagine Apple maps would be the main navigation system. 

 

But that much money....that would be hard to pass up. 

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Hey, Dave, your concerns sound very much like the joke that was circulating several years ago that talked about what cars would be like if Microsoft built a car, I'm sure you remember things said like:  stepping on the gas a warning light would come up telling you that you had performed an illegal operation, for no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day, every time they painted the lines on the road you would have to buy a new car, occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn, would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to re-install the engine, etc. One thing added to this joke (and I believe the joke originated by someone at GM in response to some comment by Bill Gates) was a line about Apple:  Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was twice as reliable, five times as fast, twice as easy to drive--but it would only run on five percent of the roads.

 

Now, we've obviously come a long way from the time that this joke was going around (but of course I still hate Windows) and I think any kind of purchase, merger or alliance between Apple and Tesla would be a wonderful thing. Both companies have a vision for the future which fits very nicely with my own vision and hope for the future.

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My fear is that if Apple bought Tesla and then took over the car manufacture they would apply their 70% margin making the Tesla cars price beyond the purchasing power  of the common man.  They are already at about the limits with their $60,000 entry price.  Also they would require you to subscribe to Apple only Toll roads and charge you an on-going rate for every mile driven.   If you wanted to use electricity from a non-apple owned utility to re-charge the batteries they would charge a 30% royalty on all watts purchased.    Also the batteries would be sealed in the car forcing you to purchase a new car every 2 to 3 years.

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There would be something great about the only company worth more than big oil buying an electric car company.

It sounds like Tesla has a fantastic battery development team, which would benefit nearly everything Apple makes.

I would also guess Apple has been learning a ton about renewable energy with their data centers. Not directly a consumer product, but something they know a lot about. It seems like an odd purchase on one level, but why the heck not. They have the money. I just hope they don't abandon working with other car makers. I really want a CarPlay stereo. I'm so tired of terrible car and car stereo UIs.

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My fear is that if Apple bought Tesla and then took over the car manufacture they would apply their 70% margin making the Tesla cars price beyond the purchasing power  of the common man.  They are already at about the limits with their $60,000 entry price.  Also they would require you to subscribe to Apple only Toll roads and charge you an on-going rate for every mile driven.   If you wanted to use electricity from a non-apple owned utility to re-charge the batteries they would charge a 30% royalty on all watts purchased.    Also the batteries would be sealed in the car forcing you to purchase a new car every 2 to 3 years.

lotd
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Here we go into the future.

Very exciting!

The Tesla will drive itself to an Apple Service Center.

You are in waiting room and they contact you via free app on iphone

that you car is ready....$2500...... just click the 'Like' button to pay for it.

If you get hungry while waiting, go to vending machine.. use iphone app to get

a bag of chips and a candy bar.

 

What was the $2500 problem?,,,,,, ECU need to be restarted.

Or... right front tire had low PSI, sent the computer haywire... car thought it was too dangerous to drive.

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Hey, Dave, your concerns sound very much like the joke that was circulating several years ago that talked about what cars would be like if Microsoft built a car, I'm sure you remember things said like:  stepping on the gas a warning light would come up telling you that you had performed an illegal operation, for no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day, every time they painted the lines on the road you would have to buy a new car, occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn, would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to re-install the engine, etc. One thing added to this joke (and I believe the joke originated by someone at GM in response to some comment by Bill Gates) was a line about Apple:  Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was twice as reliable, five times as fast, twice as easy to drive--but it would only run on five percent of the roads.

 

Now, we've obviously come a long way from the time that this joke was going around (but of course I still hate Windows) and I think any kind of purchase, merger or alliance between Apple and Tesla would be a wonderful thing. Both companies have a vision for the future which fits very nicely with my own vision and hope for the future.

I actually haven't heard any of those microsoft jokes in regards to their own self driving car. I didn't even know they were working on one. 

 

I'm not the biggest fan of one giant tech company buying another giant tech company. I'd rather Apple just invest in Tesla, but they can do whatever they want. I still can't afford a Tesla and I doubt I ever will, unless they can make one for the masses that is $20K or less. 

 

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I actually haven't heard any of those microsoft jokes in regards to their own self driving car. I didn't even know they were working on one. 

 

The Microsoft jokes are very old --- comes from someone at General Motors I believe as a reaction to something Bill Gates said about automobiles. Microsoft was not involved in building any automobiles at that time.

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The Tesla will drive itself to an Apple Service Center.

There, a "genius" will tell you (or the app will) that the next appointment is available in a week, and now you know why they are geniusses and not genies, and then your car will drive itself to... No, wait a minute, you're car is broken it won't drive anywhere, sorry you'll have to walk.

Next week, when you finally have the appointment, the "genius" tells you your car can't be fixed, even though only the tire is flat, but they offer you a brand new car for this very "moderate" fee.

Another week later, Apples releases the new Tesla, which has only a few minor improvements, but they changed its form a little bit, and now you want it so much! But you just replaced the other one and it feels stupid to upgrade now, but you do jt anyway, because you know that in a few years, Apple will not repair your "old" car anymore. But by then, they'll have yet another, slightly modified car, anyway.

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