- It seems like every three months, some tech company,
who's never built a car before,
announces they're going to build a car.
Years go by and we never hear about it again.
Why is that?
Is it ego?
Overconfidence?
As cars become more tech heavy,
it makes sense that a tech company
could make a great car, right?
The answer is more complicated than you might think.
In this episode, I'm going to give you a timeline
of tech companies getting into cars.
The various reasons why they've done it.
How some of them have missed the mark.
And how others have prevailed.
Let's get into it.
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I wanna start this episode with an admission, okay.
I have a history of being a hater,
and I want to apologize.
It's easy to talk trash on companies
when they're just a faceless logo,
and not a collection of engineers and designers
who work really hard on projects
that sometimes just don't work out.
So, as I talk about the failed projects in this episode,
I'm going to keep in mind
that I couldn't accomplish any of this stuff.
The companies in this story, for the most part,
should be applauded for taking a swing
and trying something different.
However, if there are any flagrantly boneheaded moves,
I'll be the first to let you know.
So a few weeks ago you probably heard
about vacuum manufacturer, Dyson,
and their failed electric car.
And if you didn't, here's a short rundown.
Back in October of last year,
Dyson announced that they were canceling
their electric car program.
Apparently the Dyson SUV made 538 horsepower,
had room for seven people and frankly look pretty good.
And this wasn't just a vaporware project.
They had a running prototype with a range of 600 miles.
That's amazing, but it came at a price.
James Dyson had put in 500 million
of his own British pounds for one car.
The project just wasn't sustainable,
so they pulled the plug.
So long Dyson car, you didn't suck.
Surprisingly though,
Dyson wasn't the first appliance company
to attempt their own car, which is where our story begins,
over 100 years ago.
- Oh, (murmur).
- How'd you even get in here?
Chapter one, the early days.
The earliest example I could find of a tech company
attempting to build a car, was Westinghouse in 1905.
The highest of the high tech
was the Steam Turbine Generators
that Westinghouse was building to produce electricity
in the early 1900s.
But in 1905 Westinghouse unveiled
their Model 40 gasoline powered car.
The Model 40 made a very appropriate 40 horsepower,
twice that of the Model T,
but also costs $7,500.
Or about 194 grand today.
You can buy something like nine Model T's
the price of a Model 40.
Obviously selling a car that expensive,
even in the early days of the automobile,
was unsustainable.
And Westinghouse stopped building the Model 40
just two years later in 1907.
But this wouldn't be Westinghouse's last brush
with building cars.
In 1967, Westinghouse debuted the Marquette.
It used 12 six volt batteries for a range of 50 miles.
Top speed, 25 miles per hour.
With arrow like that I'm not surprised at all.
Westinghouse built the Marquette in response to legislation
that promoted EV development,
cut down pollution and congestion in big cities.
But enough about Westinghouse.
Let's fast forward a few decades and talk about a company
you might've heard of.
- Thank you.
- Today Samsung is known for their high tech products,
like laptops, tablets, and phones.
Back in the early 90s though,
Samsung was much like Westinghouse.
Specializing in home appliances and electronics,
until they saw an opportunity.
Samsung chairman, Kun-Hee Lee,
was the son of Samsung's founder.
After taking the reigns of the company,
I think Kun-Hee he wanted to do his pops proud
and lead Samsung's ascent over there arch nemesis, Hyundai.
How would he do that exactly? Cars.
There is just a one problem.
They didn't know how to build cars.
So Kun-Hee did some business
and got Nissan onboard to help them produce a car.
In 1995, Samsung announced the formation of SMI,
or Samsung Motors,
which would produce re badged Nissan's under license.
The first Samsung mobiles rolled off
the assembly line in 1998, directly into the chomping mouth
of the Asian financial crisis,
which was causing trouble all over the region.
Not good timing.
In the first half of that year,
SMI lost $192 million alongside the 45,000 cars they sold.
Most of which were bought by Samsung employees.
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Timing for the Samsung car was really awful
and they lost a bunch of money.
And ended up selling their automotive assets to Renault,
in 2000, who renamed the company Renault Samsung Motors.
Through the 2010s, they sold electric cars in Korea
and the company was actually slated to have a big revival
this year at the Manila Auto Show,
which had to be postponed for some reason.
Frankly, I'd like to see Renault Samsung
finally get a win on home turf.
But it's not going to be easy.
Hyundai was able to buy Kia during that financial crisis,
which only made their foothold on the automotive market
even stronger in Korea.
Chapter two, Google this.
Google has been involved with automobiles for a while now.
You might recall how back in 2012,
Google celebrated 300,000 self-driven miles
in their Autonomous Prius's,
which they acquired when they purchased a small startup,
called 510 Systems a year prior.
And it was the company behind the cameras
that eventually powered Google Street View.
510 Systems made the cameras for a company called Topcon,
who sold them to Google.
Not a lot is known about Google's acquisition of 510,
but I figured it went something like,
"Hey, let's just buy the source for these cameras.
"Oh, wait, they're developing a self driving car too?
"We've been trying to do that since 2008.
"Let's buy those guys as well."
But wait, why would Google develop
a self driving car anyway,
For the heck of it?
Not exactly.
The company estimated that a million lives a year
could be spared by driverless cars.
Those sound like pretty good reasons,
but there's gotta be another reason
a search engine would spend a ton of money
developing self-driving tech, right?
Perhaps something so shocking
it'll blow the story wide open.
But the truth is they just want to make more money.
Google has bought over 170 companies to do just that.
Companies like 510 Systems.
In 2014, Google introduced the Firefly,
which showed off Google's vision
for the future of transportation.
Which had no steering wheel and looked like a character
from Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends.
Right off the bat I should tell you that this car
was never meant for production.
It was meant to be a platform for figuring things out,
like where to put sensors.
Giving passengers what they need in the cabin,
and where to put the dang computers
that drove the car in the first place.
With all these important tweaks,
the Firefly racked up over a million self-driven miles.
It might've looked funny,
but the cutesy little car was a big stepping stone
for the next step.
Google Self Driving Car Program has since evolved
into its own company called Waymo,
which is both a ride-hailing app called Waymo1,
active right now in East Phoenix,
as well as an autonomous trucking service, called Waymo Via.
Now, instead of manufacturing their own cars,
like Westinghouse or Samsung.
Waymo has opted to adapt existing cars
with Google self-driving tech.
Now, obviously it's a little early
to make a judgment call on whether or not
this whole thing is going to work out.
But so far, this is the best example
of a tech company making their own lane
in the automotive world.
Chapter three, Apple the app.
In 2015, The Guardian reported that Apple
was looking into a test site ideal for autonomous cars.
Now, why would they be interested in something like that,
I wonder.
Well, at that point it was an open secret that Apple
had been working on a car of their own for some time,
under the code name, Project Titan.
Apple had supposedly recruited people
from all over the automotive industry to work on the car,
including Mercedes Benz's own Silicon Valley research head.
I mean, Tim cook even met up
with the late Sergio Marchionne,
then the head of Fiat Chrysler.
And even took a tour of the BMW plant
where they built the i3.
It sounds like Apple was pretty freaking serious.
Now this is the part of the video where anyone
who worked on the project will probably start laughing
at me because there's pretty limited info on Project Titan.
Back in 2016, macrumors.com reported
that Project Titan had changed direction
in favor of developing self-driving tech, much like Google.
Supposedly there is a lot of internal strife within Titan,
over which way to take the project.
And a lot of people were either laid off or reassigned.
While there are still a ton of rumors circulating
that Apple is still considering getting into the car game,
I'm not so sure.
It makes a lot more sense to me that they would
just develop their own self-driving tech,
and license it out to manufacturers,
almost like Apple Car Play.
Apple was awarded a licensed by the California DMV
to test autonomous vehicles on the road in 2017.
And followed through with Lexus SUVs, supplied by Hertz.
Outfitted with all sorts of sensors
to keep the things on the road.
In 2019, it was reported that Apple laid off
another 200 employees from Project Titan,
probably another sign of Apple's once again,
pivoting what Titan actually does.
Now I know autonomous cars probably aren't
what you wanted to hear about,
but that seems to be the direction most tech companies
are going when it comes to cars.
It should be no surprise that Amazon
is on the autonomous train as well.
With a huge investment in autonomous outfit, Aurora.
Amazon said, quote, autonomous technology
has the potential to help make the jobs of our employees
and partners safer and more productive.
Whether it's in a fulfillment center or on the road.
And we're excited about the possibilities, unquote.
Couple that with their investment
in electric car maker, Rivian,
and you can see what their goals most likely are.
Driverless electric vans with robots,
delivering packages to your doorstep.
Chapter four, Sony.
All the way back on January 8th of this year,
which feels like seven years ago.
I can't remember anything that happened in January,
except for shooting High-Low season 1.5.
Which I just remember is now available on YouTube.
Check it out.
I don't cry this season, but we did break a lot of stuff.
Anyway, it was January 8th
at The Consumer Electronics Show,
and Sony dropped the bomb on everyone in attendance,
with their Vision S electric car concept.
Yes, they designed something more expensive than the PS5.
I didn't think it was possible either.
The Vision S had all the features you'd expect
from a current gen electric car, and then some.
The interior is focused around the four touchscreen displays
that make up the dashboard.
The rear passenger seats have their own speakers
in the headrests.
And Sony says that it's possible for all the passengers
to watch different things at the same time.
And it looks really comfortable.
I haven't even mentioned the exterior,
which also looks really good,
especially when you put it next to other Sony products.
I'm just kidding, this thing looks great.
PS3's a good looking machine though.
Unfortunately, you won't be able to pre-order
a Vision S anytime soon.
Sony created this fascinating electric car
as a concept slash prototype in between thing.
They wanted to see how they could best fit
their current tech into a car.
And the best way to do that was to build their own.
I almost forgot to mention,
this thing actually drives too.
It can hit zero to 60 in four and a half seconds,
with a top speed of 149 miles per hour.
Couldn't quite hit 150.
Of all the tech company cars,
the Sony Vision S is easily my favorite.
I think it looks great.
And they're clearly trying to make
the passenger experience better,
while still giving driver control.
So that just leaves one question.
Why won't Sony follow through
and let me buy this dang thing.
Well, like we saw with Dyson,
at the beginning of this episode,
manufacturing cars is really, really, really expensive.
Conclusion.
Take Tesla, of example.
According to auto industry analysts at Morgan Stanley,
Tesla will have to spend $180 billion to reach their goal
of 10 million cars a year, 180 billion.
Morgan Stanley also predicts that the company
will spend around $66 billion by 2030.
That's 10 years.
Those are astronomical figures,
figures that would scare anybody away.
And it doesn't get any less scary,
the cheaper your car gets.
On the other side of the spectrum is Tata motors.
The Indian manufacturer that produces the Nano,
the cheapest car in the world, at $3,700 US.
Just one of Tatas factories, the Sanand Plant,
which actually produced the Nano,
cost $262 million to build.
And that's just one factory.
Tata has 26 factories all over the world.
It might be costing Tesla and arm and all of their legs,
but the investment is paying off.
No matter what you think of them,
they're easily the most hyped car maker
in the game right now.
Even if I hate all the tech company stuff they do,
like putting all the controls on a touch screen or whatever.
I'm just old school, okay.
I willfully bought a car older than my dad.
I'm sorry.
I used to think that tech companies failing to build cars
was a sign of their hubris.
Oh, so you think because you made a phone,
you can build a car?
How would you stay in your lane, Jack?
There are companies that already do that.
But I never considered that maybe the people working
on these projects like cars too.
And for that, I am genuinely sorry.
Tech companies try these things because they're made up
of people who genuinely enjoy solving problems,
and want to try things differently.
And as we've seen, they did a lot of things differently.
They just didn't have the enormous budgets necessary
to put those dreams into production,
in an already crowded industry.
I myself might not want a self driving car,
but there are plenty of people that probably do.
And that's their prerogative.
Hey, thank you very much for watching
this episode of Wheelhouse.
If you haven't subscribed to the channel,
please consider doing so.
We put a lot of work into our videos
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And I want you to be a part of that.
Anyway, be kind and I'll see you next time.
(lip smacking)