We still haven’t got the Apple Watch in our hands, and yet rumors are rife about the “upcoming” Apple car, an electric self-driving automobile.
It has long been known that Apple has been toying with the idea of a car, even when Steve Jobs was alive, but it wasn’t till very recently that the possibility of it becoming a reality hit us.
Naturally, critics have been up in arms about how the Apple Car won’t make the cut.
It’s not like Apple hasn’t had its fair share of critics – we all know that. The head of Motorola even took a potshot at Apple saying that its products are too expensive. I wonder what car he drives?
But, back to the Apple Car.
Chief of Daimler and Mercedes-Benz Dieter Zetsche has spoken out about the Apple Car saying he’s not losing sleep over all the rumors. To quote Dieter Zetsche:
If there were a rumor that Mercedes or Daimler planned to start building smartphones then they [Apple] would not be sleepless at night. And the same applies to me.
At this point, his stance is quite understandable, with Mercedes being the brand that it is. And it’s not like its cars are not going in the same direction as the rumored Apple Car. It is not unlikely that Mercedes will be producing cars offering similar features – and better quality perhaps, given the brand’s reputation – in the future.
On another note, Apple is supposedly pulling no punches in trying to get its Apple Car crew together. Elon Musk has revealed that Apple is offering enticing packages to Tesla’s employees to change sides. While that was not really a secret, Musk mentioned numbers such as $250,000 signing bonuses on top of 60 percent salary increase.
So is the Apple Car still a figment of speculators’ imaginations?
What say you?
