Apple chief, Tim Cook denies car making plans
13 Mar 2015
With the Apple Watch now out in the open, shareholders at the annual shareholders meeting of the company on Tuesday expressed interest in the possibility of the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla Motors.
"We don't really have a relationship with them," Cook said, wearily, responding to a question about Apple's ties with Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk.
"I'd love Tesla to pick up CarPlay. We now have every major auto brand committing to use CarPlay, and maybe Tesla would want to do that."
"Was that a good way to avoid the question?" Cook added, as the room erupted with laughter.
Despite Cook ducking the question, another investor took the microphone only minutes, later saying he had put down a deposit to reserve the very first Mac in 1984, and that nothing had made him quite as excited since then as the Tesla Model S he had purchased. "Every time I see it, it blows my mind," said the man, who did not identify himself. "Am I insane to think something might happen here?"
"Let me think if there's another way for me to not answer this question," Cook said with a smile. "We're very focused on CarPlay."
Meanwhile, all the talk of Apple getting into the car-making business seems to have not gone down very well with car maker. Former General Motors CEO Dan Akerson voiced his concerns, warning that the creator of iPhones, iMacs and iPods would be foolish to whimsically enter into such a small-margin, hard-core manufacturing business.
However, according to commentators, Cook's lack of enthusiasm for the idea, was an indication that the Apple Titan car, a secret project which was only recently leaked to the public, was little more than a ''testing the waters'' measure without committing to any automotive aspirations.
If that was the way it really was then Tesla fans would have a reason to cheer as a Tesla acquisition by a highly proprietary tech company would almost certainly be bad news for them.
