off topic: Apple’s iPad and the car industry

Apple's iPad

Okay, so Apple’s newly announced iPad isn’t a car, nor does it revolutionize anything about the car industry—or does it? Perhaps you got a chance to enjoy the hype leading upto the big iPad announcement and thought the iPad left you a bit wondering, and expecting more features. To you I say, the secret behind Apple’s success isn’t Steve Job’s diabolical plot to own the world, but his attention to detail and obsessive desire to make products which function best. Lots of people were left disappointed without a full-blown Mac OS-based iPad. They expected a camera, they expected more harddrive space, the list goes on. Where manufacturers have traditionally tried to cram as many features into products as possible, Apple’s approach through the lifespan of the company has been to accept technological limitations and only include features which make the product “insanely great.” The iPad isn’t a laptop, nor is it a smartphone, nor is it a Mac Pro workhorse computer. It is simply built as the easiest to use internet, email, app and photos product. The iPad is about being the best tool for the jobs we do most, and in that ideology it is another extension of a company devoted to defining what we use computers for.

Now the abrupt transition to the car industry. Rumors have been going around about the BMW Group developing a new hybrid-electric vehicle for a while now. They are developing the so-called “Megacity Vehicle” which will be a near zero-emission small city car, as well as the Mini E which is on track to sell soon. The trend in the car industry is going to be scaling down features, power, and weight, for an essential task vehicle which runs more efficiently. Hybrid and EV technology is expensive to develop, and some concerned scientists are criticizing hybrid makers for bundling too many features with their cars to water down the expensive technology with expensive upgrades.

BMW Megacity (artists rendering)

My point? You already have an iPhone, and a laptop, and soon an iPad, even though none of them replaces the Mac Pro or Dell PC you have to do your work on and store your porn. So why do we expect cars to do all the functions of city car and long distance tourer and sports vehicle? We need to recognize that we use cars for three very different purposes. We want one which is highly efficient and gets to work on cheap tires, one big one to travel long distances comfortably, and one to sit in the garage until Sundays when we head out to the track or do a little spirited driving.