Will Apple buy... McLaren?

[voyager]

Be surprised... be very surprised!

Apple looks poised to purchase McLaren following months of negotiations, if reports on The Financial Times are accurate. The news suggests California’s technology giant is making moves towards producing its first production car model, something that has been in the making for several years.

Thanks to its Formula 1 team and technology division, McLaren is an expert in exotic car production, advanced engineering and data, likely making it an attractive proposition for a new car brand like Apple.
Apple ‘in talks with McLaren over takeover' | Autocar

 

[voyager]

McLaren Refutes Reports of Apple Talks, Possible Takeover

 

[Waiting4M3]

So that's how Apple will repatriate their EU loot, stuffing them in a bunch of McLarens and ship them to the US!

 

[NeverFollow]

Apple buying McLaren would make perfect sense
(And not just to get another spaceship HQ)

The McLaren Technology Centre, finished in 2004, is a gorgeous facility designed by Foster & Partners
(the same firm behind Apple’s Spaceship campus and many of the most visible Apple retail stores).

 

[NeverFollow]

Watch a young Elon Musk take delivery of his McLaren F1 in 1999
A 28-year-old Musk receives his million-dollar supercar.

Elon Musk Bought a $1 Million Supercar in His First Video Appearance Ever

Young Elon Musk featured in documentary about millionaires (1999)

 

[ecarfan]

I am skeptical that Apple has any intention of buying McClaren. I do not see any advantage for Apple.

It is possible that Apple is talking to McClaren about buying or licensing some of it's technology for an Apple car.

 

[DrManhattan]

McClaren

That makes me cringe a little

 

[LargeHamCollider]

Would be spectacular, but seems odd. I would guess that apples issues would be in manufacturing not in design, and if you're going to buy a boutique auto-maker I'd take Rimac.

 

[voyager]

I am skeptical that Apple has any intention of buying McClaren. I do not see any advantage for Apple. It is possible that Apple is talking to McClaren about buying or licensing some of it's technology for an Apple car.

Next time there's talk about a new Mac... they might be talking about a self-driving McLaren. You know, instead of a multi-million dollar costing driver that steers the F1 car, you see a robot with remote control steering the car from the paddock. Now you know why F1 driver Jenson Button is leaving McLaren.

 

[ecarfan]

Next time there's talk about a new Mac... they might be talking about a self-driving McLaren. You know, instead of a multi-million dollar costing driver that steers the F1 car, you see a robot with remote control steering the car from the paddock. Now you know why F1 driver Jenson Button is leaving McLaren.

I don't know for sure why Button is leaving McLaren, but I am confident that within 10 years autonomous racecars will be able to beat the best human drivers on the track. Whether humans are going to be interested in watching autonomous racecars is unknown, but I suspect that within a few decades humans racing cars around a track will be a thing of the past. NASCAR and F1 will be history and future generations will have no interest in such activities, they will be on to new things that we can barely imagine right now.

 

[RobStark]

Would be spectacular, but seems odd. I would guess that apples issues would be in manufacturing not in design, and if you're going to buy a boutique auto-maker I'd take Rimac.

McLaren actually builds cars. In very limited numbers but they build them every year.

Some years only race cars. But recently it seems they are permanently selling road cars.

Rimac started as an electric vehicle conversion shop.

And turned into an automotive consultancy.

How many Concept One vehicles have they actually delivered?