Apple's Wrong Turn

That helps explain why Apple's initial car plan involved designing and building a vehicle from the ground up. Google, Uber, and others have a long head start when it comes to the software, but very little experience designing and manufacturing machines that people want to buy. Perhaps Apple could gain an edge by marrying the software to beautiful hardware. Alas, Apple quickly realized that building cars is quite different from building computers, and it was at an insurmountable disadvantage in that realm, too. This leaves Apple in the same position it has been in for the past decade: as a maker of sleek personal computing devices, with the venerable iPhone as its flagship.