Tesla Roadster Rumors, Apple Car Cancellation & Fisker
Tesla's Ambitious Roadster
Elon Musk has recently sparked excitement (and skepticism) with tweets regarding a radical redesign of the Tesla Roadster.
• SpaceX Collab: The proposed vehicle aims to incorporate cold gas thrusters—a technology used for space maneuvering—into the car design to achieve sub-one-second 0-60 acceleration.
• Feasibility Concerns: Discussion highlights the immense engineering hurdles, such as weight, power requirements to operate thrusters, and safety regulations. While Tesla is known for eventually shipping designs close to their concepts, the Roadster remains an outlier, plagued by delays and evolving technical specs.
Apple Cancels Titan Project
After a decade of development, Apple has officially shelved its internal car project, codenamed Project Titan.
• Shifting Focus: Resources are being reallocated toward generative AI, a strategic move given that Apple already dominates the automotive dashboard experience through CarPlay.
• Market Realities: The hosts discuss how for a company of Apple's size, entering a new hardware category requires massive potential growth, which may have led to the cessation of this multi-billion dollar effort.
The Fisker Ocean Controversy
The episode dives deep into the Fisker Ocean following an Autofocus video where it was labeled the worst car ever reviewed.
• Reliability Issues: The car suffered from significant firmware and software bugs, issues with the key fob, and unpredictable regenerative braking.
• Transparency: The discussion clarifies that the review was an unbiased, editorial piece. Despite attempts by Fisker to offer paid engagement, the team maintained their integrity, reviewing the car strictly as it exists in the market for consumers.
Vision Pro "Crackgate"
Reports of Vision Pro units showing mysterious cracks down the middle have emerged, fueling speculation about structural flaws or temperature-related issues.
"If I spent 3500 dollars on this thing and it had a giant crack up the middle by no fault of my own, I would be very upset."
• The hosts investigate their own hardware, finding that while their unit is free of cracks, the concern among early adopters remains high regarding potential design weaknesses.