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Tim Cook on Revealing Apple's Car Plans: 'Yeah, I'm Probably Not Going to Do That'

Monday February 22, 2016 6:35 am PST by Mitchel Broussard
time-cook-time-100-2015-iconsApple CEO Tim Cook discussed a range of topics in an interview with Fortune posted online today. Although Cook skirted the topic of the Apple Car, eventually Fortune brought up the recent hiring of automobile industry people by Apple, and asked Cook to put the rumors to rest once and for all.
Yeah, I’m probably not going to do that. The great thing about being here is we’re curious people. We explore technologies, and we explore products.

And we’re always thinking about ways that Apple can make great products that people love, that help them in some way. And we don’t go into very many categories, as you know. We edit very much. We talk about a lot of things and do fewer. We debate many things and do a lot fewer.
According to Cook, the addition of people from the automotive industry isn't a confirmation of the Apple Car, but simply a way for Apple to "explore things with teams of people." Once an idea gets past that stage, and the company begins "spending large amounts of money," that's when Cook and the team are "committed" to seeing the project through to the end. Although he doesn't directly confirm it, the suggestion hints that Apple's potential smart car is in the exploratory phase.
Part of exploring technologies and picking the right one is becoming so familiar with it you can see ways that it can be used. And for us, we’ve never been about being first. We’ve been about being best. So we explore many different things, many different technologies. And at first we might not know what product it might wind up in. And then later we’ll see that that really cool technology enables maybe things that we’re doing today to take on something bigger, maybe something new. But once we start spending gobs of money—like when we start spending on tooling and things like that—we’re committed.
Cook also touched on the topic of Apple occupying an era of "peak iPhone," thanks to a Q1 2016 fiscal quarter that saw iPhone sales remain largely "flat" from the same time last year (74.8 million iPhones in 2016 compared to 74.5 million in 2015). Cook said that he and Apple attempt to ignore such chatter and focus on the tenets of customer satisfaction and product quality, believing that "over time," he's sure "that everything else will catch up."

The Apple CEO ended with hinting that the company's newest headquarters will open in "early 2017," although a specific date has yet to be set. The name of the new campus is still up in the air as well, but Cook said that it will in some way pay homage to Steve Jobs and that Apple is "working with Laurene [Powell Jobs, Steve’s widow] and the family" on specifically deciding which direction to take with honoring the late CEO.

Check out Fortune's full Q&A with Tim Cook here.

Related Roundup: Apple Car
Tag: Tim Cook
[ 99 comments ]


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gugy
44 months ago
Tim, please focus on MacOS and iOS. Software and hardware. Be careful spreading Apple all over the place.
Rating: 14 Votes
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dannyyankou
44 months ago

Tim, please focus on MacOS and iOS. Software and hardware. Be careful spreading Apple all over the place.

Well yeah, it would be silly for their iPhone and Mac engineers working on a car. That's why they bring in car experts to explore it. It's not like they can only focus on a couple things at a time.
Rating: 11 Votes
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jamietomo78
44 months ago

I think he's still salty because of the FBI :p

He's worried the FBI might want to put a back door onto it. :D
Rating: 7 Votes
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Tycho24
44 months ago

Tim, please focus on MacOS and iOS. Software and hardware. Be careful spreading Apple all over the place.


Jesus Christ... haven't you lot got the memo that Apple is NOT two people working out of a garage anymore??!

Here's your same comment, rooted this time in REALITY:
"Tim, please take the hundreds of people you've newly hired with automotive experience & let them take the reins on squashing software bugs."
Sounds pretty silly, right??
Rating: 5 Votes
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macs4nw
44 months ago
As far as the naming of the new campus is concerned, I'd say that building is definitely an 'Infinite Loop', Steve's hand-picked name for the old campus.

That's surely a way of honoring him in the new campus, without plastering his name all over the building.




Edit: As mbrannon47 pointed out @post30 below, I was wrong about IL being Steve's hand-picked name for the old campus, but imho I still think Infinite Loop would make a good name for the new 'spaceship' campus for the other reasons I gave.
Rating: 4 Votes
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Mercifull
44 months ago
Of course Apple aren't directly investing much into any sort of car project, that's what Sixty Eight Research is for ;)
Rating: 4 Votes
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Nightarchaon
44 months ago
Hard to get people to buy a new car every two years that needs a specially shaped fuel pump to fill it up.
Rating: 4 Votes
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zahuh
44 months ago
I'm sick of Cook saying "We don't want to be first, we want to be best." I LOVED the 17" MBP. I loved the risk and attempt to make something great that nobody else made. I loved the backlit keyboard that nobody had. I could use dozens of more examples in the SJ days. Tim, it's okay to risk and go for something nobody has done and be the best at the same time.
Rating: 4 Votes
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Dilster3k
44 months ago
Making a car would be such a stretch, they haven't even gotten CarPlay right.
Rating: 2 Votes
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8692574
44 months ago

does Android have backdoor in their system?

Androids have a frontdoor ( alongside a backdoor and probably many windows) and I think it is called Google.
Rating: 2 Votes

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