GM ex-CEO warns Apple about vehicular ambitions

Forgive him for being skeptical, but he’s been there, done that. Former General Motors CEO is skeptical about Apple’s desire to build cars and is warning them that they may be biting off more than they can chew.

He would know. He was there through the ups and downs of one of the most popular car manufacturers in the world. Apple is hiring people and starting the development of their own line of cars, a task as daunting as starting a computer company in a world dominated by IBM. Nobody could have pulled that off… oh, wait.

“I think somebody is kind of trying to cough up a hairball here,” Akerson said in a telephone interview. “If I were an Apple shareholder, I wouldn’t be very happy. I would be highly suspect of the long-term prospect of getting into a low-margin, heavy-manufacturing” business.

His statement has been called inappropriate for pointing out his opinion of being a shareholder, but it didn’t seem to impact the popular stock. It hit another record this week and is showing very little signs of buckling to the potential of a large and risky investment into the automotive industry.

Competitor Google has already been developing their own entry into the automotive industry, albeit not quite as ambitious with their driverless car concept that is utilizing multiple automotive platforms.