Would Apple buy a big already established large player ? Their style is more like buying a tiny player, integrating it and rebranding their expertise under Apple flag.

I was thinking that Lotus would have been the type of Apple candidate and on the market for acquisition. That's basically starting the same road as Tesla, 15 later - seems a bit late for that. Volvo is another company that would align nicely with Apple design goals, but similarly they have progressed along too well.

Maybe brand like Saab that has still retained enough engineering capability, had some traditional car design know how ( interior design like seat, ... ) that can quickly (i.e. Apple need a fully autonomous car in the next 10 years top) be capitalised with Apple own know-how into a decent Tesla, VW, BMW, Volvo 2025 competitor ?

As both a Lotus fan and an Apple fan, I'm not sure their goals are at all aligned. Lotus is singularly focused on a "pure driving experience" and their cars are minimalistic (very few driving aids, very little noise insulation, thinly padded seats, firm suspension damping) by design. They only recently adopted automatic transmissions in their "flagship" car (the Evora). I really don't think an autonomous Lotus would be "a Lotus".

I would be shocked if any current or potential Lotus owner would be interested in a "automated Lotus". That being said, I think the number of "current or potential Lotus owners" is a vanishingly small market, so it may not matter.

> Would Apple buy a big already established large player ? Their style is more like buying a tiny player, integrating it and rebranding their expertise under Apple flag.

Except for Beats, where Apple bought an established large player and left them under the Beats brand

Could they use some of their overseas money to buy a non-US car company (wholly listed on a non-US exchange)?

Tesla's current market cap is 61B, compared to Ford's 45B. There's a lot of growth expectation baked into that price already. No matter how much money they burned on trying to make a car, it will pale in comparison to trying to buy Tesla.

Yes, that sounds like a great reason to wait for a cheaper price. (Imagine the discount if they screwed up the Model 3 launch.)

Imagine the lost opportunity if they don't screw it up, too, while you're at it. Although historically stock usually does drop on such momentous occasions, even if everything goes well.

Then again, imagine you are Walmart right at the point that Amazon was moving from selling books to selling everything. The same logic could easily apply.

I agree. Assuming a car maker like ford would sell it would be a much better buy - realistically one of the smaller ones would.

I think it's too early to know how it will play out but I suspect comparing car manufacturing to phone and computer manufacturing is like comparing apples to... well, you get the idea.

How hard could it be? I'm looking forward to the Hammerhead i-Eagle Thrust Pro Mini Retina Air 2.

You mean comparing apples to lemons?

Okay, lemon is «citron» in French, not Citroën, but close enough, right?

If Apple bought Tesla, it would end up being the biggest tech boondoggle in history. The money is in licensing the software for autonomous cars, not the car itself.

Hopefully Tesla would never sell to Apple. I think Apple makes some good products, but I hate how closed their ecosystem is. Tesla has open sourced it's patents, which strongly goes against Apple's philosophy.

Eh, Tesla has done a notoriously bad job at being open with access to their repair guides and software.

Not that I believe that Apple would ever consider buying Tesla, but if they did make an offer, it would not be up to Tesla but to its shareholders to accept or reject the deal.

What I got from the previous reports is that Apple thinks that self-driving tech isn't that far off and that it's going to be a major differentiating element. They probably want to get this tech right and then build a car around it.

That would make sense. But they seem to be adrift on the technology right now.

Apple is off its game when it talks to investors about how it's going to deliver revolutionary tech. It goes well for them the other way: deliver-shock-and-awe.

Maybe they will start selling cars. Take a Toyota / Ford / GM chassis and they do the interior and setup the autonomous systems. Like what they do now with their phones.

Maybe, yes. But when did Apple ever choose to put themselves inside someone else's shell?

Given their market cap they could in theory try to buy Tesla, though I'm not sure if they could succeed at this. Surely would be a good way to use their cash hoard from abroad in case there should really be a tax holiday that will allow US companies to repatriate their overseas money in a tax-free way.