Wesley Hilliard
Wedbush believes Apple's alleged move to cancel the development of the Apple Car provides a laser focus on what's next for the company — AI.
Reliable sources say that Apple has ended work on Project Titan, meaning, if true, that an Apple Car will never see the light of day. This may disappoint some, but at least one investment firm is bullish about the move.
According to a note from Wedbush seen by AppleInsier, Apple disbanding Project Titan and focusing that team on AI initiatives is the right move. It would mean accelerating the development of Apple's AI initiatives as they become more important through 2024.
The note is mostly positive, focusing on the potential of Apple's entry into more defined artificial intelligence features. Rumors suggest iOS 18 could have a focus on AI, and Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that AI news is coming in 2024.
The comments reflect what Wedbush previously classified as an Apple renaissance with Apple Vision Pro and its products. Ultimately, cross-device functionality between iPhone, Vision Pro, and AI-powered products could propel consumer use cases.
Wedbush maintains an outperform rating with a price target of $250.
Oliver Haslam
Andrew O'Hara
Charles Martin
Marko Zivkovic
Malcolm Owen
Andrew Orr
5 Comments
A car was IMHO never a good fit to the Apple portfolio. Apple tends to 'revolutionize' existing industries by providing an 'insanely great' update to the way we think about these products, leading eventually to financial success.
What 'insanely great' feature could they offer for that car? Fully autonomous might be 'the thing' but it turns out that problem is much harder than people expected 10 years ago and by now I have serious doubt it will happen in the next 10 years. A revolution in the way we use cars!? Not on the horizon.
Talking price. Even Apple might have difficulties making a car in the USD100k+ price range a success, it's just way too expensive. (Yes they do exist but most of the time the high-end models are subsidized by lower end models in the industry and rarely financially successful) It also looks like they tried and failed to gain any car manufacturer as an OEM producer of the car.
That everybody now jumps on the AI train because it's probably at the high point of the hype cycle, is just sad. Apple has been incorporating AI for years in it's products and features and continues to do so. They are not behind in the AI field, they just don't show unfinished prototypes/products and that what it is we see right now. Mostly gimmicky features (cool but mostly useless), that makes the potential of AI clear to the uninitiated/non-technical press. Apple never sells 'techie' features but 'user' features and as long as they continue to concentrate on that I'll be happy with Apple (not jumping on every hype but producing solid results and effectively generating their own hype).
Apple has no problem to build EVs. All Chinese "stuffs" do. So, why not Apple?
It is about margins, capex, FCF, earnings etc.
And besides, it is all about distinguished user experience and fully autonomous driven cars (lv.4 or 5), but it is not possible.
I work in the automotive industry. I can tell you that the automotive industry is a low maring dinosaur. And claim costs are higher than development costs. You know that there are a lot of defect cars and claims.
I would not know how Apple would handle those claims.
It just signals that Apple is struggling for their future projects. It is brave to give up a big project. It takes courages to do that, but what will the next growth story be?
Just integrating "some AI stuffs" on iPhones?
Let's.. Many seem to bet against Apple nowadays and predict their legacy going down.
Maybe, they are right..... or not..
I am convinced that we need a new CEO who is dynamic and drives more innovative activities.
After Job's death, the execution and operating phase was initated. Tim Cook is excellent at that, but now, the executing phase seems to be over. We are turning again to an innovation phase.
Is Tim Cook still the right CEO? Yes, No, Maybe..
I believe Apple Car was NEVER a build-a-car project and we’re already seeing Project Titan.
I think Project Titan is actually CarPlay 2 and probably a major enhancement using AI for mapping.
Apple building a car has NEVER made sense but Apple building a hardware/software platform that manufacturers can adopt and open up to an easy way to get information from your vehicle actually does.
Self-drive cars are cool, and as a motorcyclist I want to see more drivers away from the wheel so badly, but they’re too demanding on existing tech and too fraught with government intervention to be truly an endeavour that Apple should develop.
My family was an automotive specialty products company for many years. The gestation of the cars in the 50s and 60s was measured in years and improvements were hard fought between marketing and engineers. The basics are simple to talk about and even design individually, but the complete assembly is a completely different world as all those components now have to work together. Not every brand has had great success for every model.
I think Apple went down nearly every rabbit hole seeking a solution and discovered that money can not always buy the correct talent for all aspects of a project. We are not graduating enough engineers in the USA to be a world power anymore. China trains at least ten times the number of engineers than we do every year. That is a major handicap for multi highly skilled technical requirement projects.
I think the alarm bells were going off as this project was a sinking dead weight and Apple salvaged the importent lessons in AI they had learned and kept those folks that ere involved with that aspect and is letting the others sink or swim on their own.
Hopefully Tim Cook's wait to the Fall message has sustenance and there will be another great device/software invention that will keep the Apple ship afloat. There have been other large companies back in the day that are not even sub foot noted in the business history books today.
The extremely expensive novelty Vision Pro device will not be the Golden Goose to lay more eggs but all of the work invested in creating it will provide a firm foundation for future projects that we the public do not even think about yet.
As a reminder, Steve Jobs had to say the new device's three features three times before the audience suddenly realized this was the iPhone that contained the three properties.