Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess recently joined Twitter to take on Tesla CEO Elon Musk, but some suggest that Apple’s autonomous car plans may be the real competition Diess will need to face down the line.
On Sunday, Reuters reported that Diess is not threatened by the prospect of an Apple Car, despite rumors circulating over the past of the tech company’s upcoming autonomous car. While Apple’s autonomous car would certainly compete with those of Volkswagen, Diess believes there is more to the auto industry than technology.
Volkswagen Partners with Microsoft to Develop Self-Driving Platform https://t.co/9XUIgYZ1wA
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) February 12, 2021
In an interview with a Frankfurt newspaper, Diess said, “The car industry is not a typical tech-sector that you could take over at a single stroke.” He continued, “Apple will not manage that overnight,” he added.
Even electric vehicle (EV) giant Tesla knows this claim all too well. While the company has begun single-handedly pushing the auto industry forward into an age of EVs, it’s still struggling with mastering scaled production, quality control, and producing finished cars – something Volkswagen has had experience with for almost a century now.
Diess did, however, acknowledge Apple’s expertise in batteries, software, and design, three major flagships of the modern EV, despite going on to say that he is “not afraid.”
Still, even without having the autonomous software to show forth yet, Volkswagen stands more than just a chance against the tech giant. And, at the very least, Apple likely won’t begin deliveries of its autonomous car for the next five years – which is plenty of time for Volkswagen to prepare for new competition.
