庫克首次迴應蘋果造車報道 汽車業鉅變將至

Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, has warned that the global automobile industry is on the brink of a technology-led upheaval, in his most direct public comments yet addressing reports that the iPhone maker is planning to start making its own cars.

蘋果(Apple)首席執行官蒂姆錠克(Tim Cook)警告稱，全球汽車行業即將迎來技術主導的劇變，這是他迄今最爲直接地公開回應有關這家iPhone製造商計劃製造汽車的報道。

“It would seem that there will be massive change, massive, in that industry,” Mr Cook said during an interview at the Wall Street Journal’s annual tech conference in Southern California. “I do think that industry is at an inflection point for massive change, not just evolutionary change.”

庫克在《華爾街日報》(Wall Street Journal)的南加州年度技術大會上接受採訪時表示：“這個行業似乎將會出現巨大的變化，非常大。我的確認爲該行業正處於劇變的臨界點上，不只是漸進式的變化。”

Apple has been assembling a team of automotive experts and studying what it would take to become a carmaker, according to people familiar with its thinking.

知情人士稱，蘋果一直在組建一個汽車專家團隊，並研究怎樣才能成爲一家汽車製造商。

Mr Cook did not respond to questions about whether Apple would make its own cars, but made it clear that a series of technology shifts were coming together to create a rare opportunity for outsiders to break into the business.

庫克沒有迴應蘋果是否要製造自己的汽車的問題，但他明確表示，一系列技術變化相繼到位，爲局外人進入這一行業提供了罕見的機遇。

“What I see is, software becomes an increasingly important component of the car in future,” he said. “Autonomous driving becomes very much more important in a huge way in future.”

他說：“我認爲，未來軟件將成爲汽車上越來越重要的組件。自動駕駛也將變得更加重要。”

In spite of the expansive predictions, Apple’s chief said that, for now, his company’s focus would be on winning over car owners with its CarPlay system, which provides a way to plug an iPhone into a car’s systems to act as an entertainment, information and communications gateway.

儘管外界流傳着宏大的預言，但庫克表示，就目前而言，蘋果將致力於讓車主安裝CarPlay系統，該系統可以讓iPhone接入汽車系統，作爲一個娛樂、信息和通信網關。

“What we really want, hopefully in the short term, is, we want people when they enter their car to have an iPhone experience,” he said. The poor performance of carmakers’ own technology has left a huge opening for companies such as Apple, Mr Cook suggested, with the current systems usually not ranked among the 10 things car owners like best about their vehicles.

他表示：“我們真正想要的、而且希望在短期就實現的是，讓人們上車後有一種iPhone體驗。”庫克表示，汽車製造商自己的技術表現糟糕，給蘋果等公司留下了巨大的機會，當前的車載系統通常不會排在車主最喜歡的十大設備之列。