The fact that Apple is repeatedly referred to as "The iPhone maker" makes me a little sad.
Anyway: except for the obvious answer "money" I don't really see why Apple feel the need to compete in the autonomous car market. Is it because Samsung makes cars?
It may make you feel better to know that the Apple Store was called "the iPod store" by kids and most people visiting before the iPhone was released. To be called "the iPhone maker" is really a testament of the ubiquity of their product. This is a good thing, and if Apple became known as the "the autonomous car maker" would be a huge achievement for them.
I don't see it as Apple trying to compete, but Apple attempting to serve their customers a better end product that ultimately make all other Apple products better in the process. For example, I get into my Apple car environment and so does the rest of my Apple ecosystem. It'd be nice for Siri to say, "I've prepared your documents for you to review for your 10am meeting, enjoy your ride."
Almost their entire profit comes from iphones. I think it's fair to refer to it as "the iPhone maker". Most people have heard of Apple only in relation to iPhone.
I disagree. It might be what they are most talked about now, but I think most people are familiar with their history. Steve Jobs, the old macs in schools, iPod, iMac, etc.
Maybe because everything is bundled and platformized. If Google release self-driving car software, they may force to use their entertainment and UI systems for cars too. Then it means better integration with Android and Google cloud services (i.e. maps and related services), interoperability with Google's home automation. At some point iOS may become isolated from this infrastructure completely.
I feel like there is a race right now to be the first serious autonomous car maker because the nature of highways and infrastructure is such that it's hard to compete with what is already there. They want to set the standard and be positioned to profit accordingly.
Imagine it's the other way around. I'm sure Apple has been working on car tech for far long than Samsung, but Samsung has been working on it because Apple is.
While Cook is mentioning it officially today, as you know they have been hiring countless people from the auto industry for many many years as they work on the tech. AI is integratal to Apple across all their product lines so makes sense to also do AI for autonomous systems such as a car. Apple isn't saying they will build their own car necessarily, they are saying they would build the underling tech for the car, that they would then presumably license to luxury car makers.
"In the early 1990s, Samsung's Chairman Kun Hee Lee recognised the automotive industry as the culmination of several others. For the Samsung Group, this would allow to leverage resources and technologies from the entire group including Samsung Electrics and Samsung Electronics."
Why does Apple need to get into automation of any sort? As I see it, Apple is about making devices that consume your time, whereas automation is about making devices that free up your time.
More automation benefits Apple inasmuch as the less time people spend on tasks like driving, the more time they have to spend using their iPhone/iPad/Mac. But they are still very different problem domains, and it's not clear to me how most of Apple's strengths in creating consumer-friendly electronics will help it in automation, when the whole point is to eliminate human interaction.
It seems like Apple would be better off just investing some of its cash pile into a plethora of automation startups. Let those startups concentrate on automating everything, while Apple concentrates on capturing all the free time it opens up for people.
Why not try ? their chances aren't worse than some of the car companies doing so.
Altough since their skills are in design, if they design a car/shuttle(even with a human rider) that multiple people ride together, AND enjoy that experience - they would have something big on their hands.
Anyway: except for the obvious answer "money" I don't really see why Apple feel the need to compete in the autonomous car market. Is it because Samsung makes cars?