Mercedes-Benz already lost a key employee to Apple’s project Titan, but Daimler AG chairman Dieter Zetsche says he’s not losing any sleep thinking about Cupertino’s rumored self-driving car.
At the launch of the new Mercedes-AMG C63 sports sedan in Portugal last night, the Mercedes boss dismissed the threat an iCar could pose to established car manufacturers, saying Apple wouldn’t be worried about a Mercedes-Benz smartphone so his company is not worried about an Apple car.
“If there were a rumor that Mercedes or Daimler planned to start building smartphones then [Apple] would not be sleepless at night. And the same applies to me,” Zetsche told Motoring.com. “And this is full of respect for Apple. That is what I am saying.”
Daimler, which own Mercdes, has already lost Johann Jungwirth, who used to head up Mercedes’ R&D lab in Silicon Valley, to Apple. Jungwirth was given the title Director of Mac Systems Engineering, according to his Linkedin profile, but he’s actually working on the rumored Apple self-driving electric minivan project after spending the first 20 years of his career working on connected cars.
Zetsche told reporters he thinks Apple building a car is a bad idea. “I don’t find any rationale. Why (Apple) with this kind of margin would now go into this business? I think investors will hate it because they don’t like conglomerates, they want focussed management on what they understand,” Zetsche said.
“I don’t know their strategy and I do not know what they are doing, but I would be very surprised if that proved to be right.”
Rumors of Apple’s car project erupted over the last two weeks after vans rented by Apple were spotted around the United States with odd camera arrays on top. The cars were later found to be for mapping purposes, but rumors of Apple’s automotive project have continued to leak from sources like Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.
Apple obviously hasn’t and won’t comment on the rumored project that supposedly already involves more than 200 employees, with a tentative launch date slated for 2020.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
20 responses to “Mercedes CEO will worry about iCar when Apple worries about their phone”
I don’t see many driving that car. F 015 looks too out of place.
The F015 is a concept car. Concept cars are typically not what they actually release, but they are merely a car to test CONCEPTS. i don’t think you understand the reason why Mercedes released the F015 to the public.
I understand it’s a concept. I’m just saying if it was public selling, I don’t see many driving this. A futuristic car versus the cars of 1950s to 1990s.
Leaves more of the futuristic cars for the people who want to buy them!
Sounds like a smart CEO.
Too bad for them that Apple isn’t just a phone company.
Yeah, but making cars and being successful in that industry is a whole other market than what Apple is used to.
Time will tell if they even begin to sell anything, and then even longer to tell if they can even spit out enough sales to make a profit.
The auto industry isn’t that profitable and Apple couldn’t do anything that I can think of that will change that.
I imagine the same was being debated when rumors of Apple Computer making a phone were swirling around
Remember when a Paypal founder started a car company?
Should be a little scared. They could by up several companies to get the rumor moving quick. How much is Tesla? SOLD.
Sounds like the Tag Heuer CEO who was quick to dismiss the Apple Watch, then quickly changed his mind. Or the Swatch CEO who dismissed the Apple Watch then announced their own smartwatch. All these guys are scared because they know that once Apple commits to something, the product becomes a disruptor.
Manufacturers should be only worried about those products/services that require a computer tom function on.
The Mac (obviously) is a computer. Not so obvious is the iPod, iPhone, iPad, AppleTV and Apple Watch. In the case of the iPod Touch it can send and receive emails, text messages, take photos and surf the internet. The iPhone can do these things plus make telephone calls, and so on and so on.
If, and I emphasize IF, Apple is working on something automotive, it will be something that requires computing hardware and software, areas in which Apple is the industry’s leader.
Exactly. MB was the first manufacture to incorporate the iPod into it’s information system. Volvo, Audi and every other manufacture working on self driving cars incorporate a smartphone as part of the process of operating the car. Apple wants that space. They will not do a hack job like Microsoft and screw over Ford.
They are not going to just walk in.
Here’s a great example of how worthless all these Apple Car stories are. When they first came out it was reported that Apple had 200 employees working on the project. Within two weeks that number jumped to 1000, then 1000+. And now here we are the number is back down to 200 employees.
The truth is that NOBODY outside Apple knows the number, and because of the way Apple compartmentalizes everything, not even the people working on A project know how many are involved.
In my opinion all these stories are click bait, even the ones emanating from AppleInsider (one of the few Apple centric sites I respect).
Apple has a lot of expertise in design, precision manufacturing, materials, technology, smart devices, sensors and such. With no internal combustion engine comes a lot of room to question traditional ways of doing things.
Apple could partner with a car manufacturer with a good reputation like Honda or so and over time introduce more and more of their improvements as they mature in the lab.
Not so very far fetched I think. Apple will have no problem carving out a healthy profit margin.
What if Mercedes had enough money to design and build a smart phone, and had a reputation for entering new markets full of old thinking?
Why are concept cars invariably hideous?
I’m sure Balsillie wasn’t worried about the iPhone either. Dieter Zetsche has nothing to worry about, because it doesn’t exist. See what the view is when it debuts in 20nn.
Didn’t some software guy start a car company that everyone laughed at….??? Look at the value of that company now…!!!
If you are a CEO of a company and have nothing sensible to say, it is best to remain tight lipped at any question about Apple, cos you will join a very long list of people that wished they had said nothing…
I hope they do make a car, but i hope that it is not something that only works in California…!!! Haha
I would also say, that all of these companies looking at renewable energy and how best to make a car that is GREEN are looking in the wrong direction, it is all about air compression if you truly want to be me green, yes you still need an engine, but the efficiency of those engines are going to be and already are more efficient than battery run cars…!