The other way of thinking about it is that autonomous cars are so obvious and will eventually be so commodity that Apple not sticking their logo on this market would be about as dumb as them not making the bigger phones the market demanded.

  autonomous cars are so obvious and will eventually be so commodity

Apple's core business (smart phones) will be commoditized way before autonomous cars - we're already seeing smart phone improvements becoming more and more incremental, longer device lifetimes, people less willing to spend for the latest and greatest

Would you buy an autonomous car from a company that can't build a reliable keyboard, and is still struggling with its maps?

I would be scared to buy an Apple car. Let there be a design flaw: It will take a class action suit for them to acknowledge it. Until then, anyone who drives to their Apple Car Store will be told to pay out of their own pocket for fixing it, that they obviously mishandled the car, Apple is not to blame, it is not covered under warranty.

As opposed to Google with their world class customer support or Uber with their great reputation for safety and ethics....

Or a GM car where they do the math to see if its worth it to issue a recall for cars that shut themselves off out of nowhere or Ford where they did a cost benefit analysis on a recall of Pinto fuel lines.

In other words, like every other business....

Apple does pay out dividends, as well as pursuing stock buy backs which pushes share prices up, rewarding investors.