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Why this could be the perfect time for Apple to make a car play

While the automotive and technology worlds have been pouring billions into autonomous vehicles (AVs) and preparing to bring them to market soon as shared robo-taxis, Apple has mostly sat on the sidelines. Of course, Apple is the last company to ever make its intentions known, and the super-secret tech cult giant hasn't been totally out of the AV game based on the clues that have slipped out of its Cupertino, Calif., citadel over the past few years. Related: Apple self-driving cars are real — one was just in an accident News first broke in 2015 that it had assembled an automotive development team, in part by poaching high-profile talent from car companies, to work on a top-secret self-driving vehicle project code-named Titan. (Thank you very much, Nissan.) Apple also subsequently broke cover by making inquiries into using a Northern California AV testing facility and receiving a permit to test AVs on public roads in California. But then as the AV race started to heat up in the last few years, Apple reportedly began scaling back its car activities by downsizing team Titan. More recently, Apple's car project has shown signs of life with the hiring a high-level engineer away from Waymo and luring one Tesla's top engineers and a former employee back to Apple. It also inked a deal with Volkswagen to provide a technology platform and software to convert the automaker's new T6 Transporter vans into autonomous shuttles for employees at tech company's new campus. That is a far cry from giving rides to Wal-Mart shoppers, like Waymo is doing as part of its AV testing in Phoenix. But this could be the perfect time for Apple to enter the AV market now that ride-sharing is reaching critical mass and automakers and others are planning to deploy fleets of robo-taxis. Apple could easily establish a niche as a high-end ride-sharing service – and charge a premium – given its cult-like brand loyalty and design savvy. The growth of car subscription models could also play in Apple's favor since is already has many people hooked on paying for phones in monthly installments – and eager to upgrade when a new and better model becomes available. To achieve this, some believe Apple will fulfill co-founder and CEO Steve Job's dream of building a car. And as the world's first and only $1 trillion company it's sitting on a mountain of cash that certainly gives it the means. But other tech darlings like Tesla and Google have discovered how difficult it can be to build cars at scale.

Tesla Investigating Fiery Model S Crash In Los Angeles

Automobiles can be dangerous objects, especially when moving at highway speeds. The July 4th holiday in the US, which took place this past weekend, is often an extra-dangerous time on America's roads, with an average of 127 deaths from car crashes in recent years. This year, there were at least two Tesla Model S crashes over the holiday, and despite a spectacular fire in one of the incidents, both of the drivers survived the incidents. "We absolutely want to have a look to understand what happened." – Tesla spokesman Simon Sproule The most dramatic crash happened when a Model S was apparently stolen and taken for a joy ride. Tesla told Bloomberg that the company is eager to take a closer look at what's left of the crashed vehicle, which snapped in half. "There aren't so many S's involved in major crashes, and certainly not quite like this one, so we absolutely want to have a look to understand what happened," said Tesla spokesman Simon Sproule. Tesla spokesperson Liz Jarvis-Shean told AutoblogGreen that, "We're working with relevant authorities and will be examining the car as we would with any accident." What isn't yet clear is how the reported thief was able to drive the stolen Model S (Tesla has not yet responded to our questions on this front). Media reports say it was someone at the Tesla store who reported the theft to police as it was happening, so it would seem that Tesla knew about the incident well before the crash. Whether there enough time to tell the police where the car was going or to deactivate the car is unknown. In another tragic crash that happened this weekend, a Model S rear ended a Toyota Corolla. Three of the occupants of the Toyota were killed but the Tesla driver only suffered "minor injuries," according to the Los Angeles Times. The Model S received five stars in the NHTSA's crash tests and has had safety improvements since those tests were conducted. Previous Tesla's have caught fire but no serious injuries have been reported.

This is why Tesla doesn't release monthly sales numbers

While most automakers that sell vehicles in the US release a flurry of numbers at the beginning of every month to tell us how many cars and trucks they've sold, Tesla Motors has resisted following the herd. This can be frustrating for those of us who like to look at some cold, hard numbers, but CEO Elon Musk has a good explanation for why he won't play the sales figures game. During a call with investors about Tesla's third-quarter activities – Tesla does reveal its deliveries every three months – Musk was asked by John Lovallo of Bank of America if Musk would ever consider releasing monthly sales numbers? Musk's initial reply was a short: "Um, no. Sorry," but he then explained why: Part of the reason why we don't release the monthly deliveries number is just because it varies quite a lot by region and the media tends to read all sorts of nonsense into the deliveries. So, we'll have 1,000 cars reach a country one month and none the next month or 100 the next month trickle in because those are the numbers that were registered one month versus the next. People will say, 'oh, wow, Tesla sales drop by a factor of 10. Well, no, the boat arrived in January and not all the cars got registered in January and some got registered in February and in March it's back up again. People assume deliveries are a proxy for demand, and that's not the case. It is the case for other car companies but in our case, it really needs to be parsed into orders and deliveries. And bear in mind, there are a lot of things we could do to amplify orders. Orders is not a true measure of demand, it's just a measure of what we need to do to meet our production and deliver number. In other words, let's not worry about the little ups and downs because we've got plenty of demand and we're selling plenty of cars. See you in February! You can read the full transcript of the call here and listen here.