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<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Alex Wong/Getty Images" title_caption="The Faraday Future FFZERO1 Concept, a high performance electric vehicle built upon FF's Variable Platform Architecture (VPA)." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5700241091058423008ba54e-960/gettyimages-503695502.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Alex Wong/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">The Faraday Future FFZERO1 Concept, a high performance electric vehicle built upon FF's Variable Platform Architecture (VPA).</p></div><p></p></div></div>Faraday Future, the electric-car company that debuted <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/faraday-future-unveils-electric-car-at-ces-2016-1">a 1,000-horsepower electric concept car</a> at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year, is starting to make some earnest moves to get its manufacturing operation off the ground.</p><p>The company has been buying up land at the site of its proposed 900-acre factory in North Las Vegas.</p><p>According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Faraday <a href="http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/economic-development/faraday-future-buying-land-apex-industrial-park">snapped up several parcels</a> - about 14 acres-worth so far - at the Apex Industrial Park.</p><p>Public documents show that a limited-liability company named Robin Prop Holdco is the buyer. "In care of Faraday &amp; Future" is noted along with the company's address.</p><p>The address is the same as Faraday Future's headquarters in Southern California, <a href="http://businesspress.vegas/record/record-40">according to the Las Vegas Business Press</a>.</p><p>Two of the parcels that were bought belonged to medical marijuana companies, the Review-Journal noted, citing records from the Clark County Assessor's office.</p><p>A real-estate company sold a third parcel to Faraday Future, bringing the total purchases on Faraday's behalf to about $1.65 million.</p><p>"We are in the final stages of closing on the last parcels of land," Faraday Future spokesperson Stacy Morris told the Review-Journal. "We are moving extremely quickly for a project of this size and expect to start the heavy construction as soon as possible," she said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Faraday Future" title_caption="A concept rendering of Faraday Future's Nevada production facility." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/566c8e2b72f2c152028b532d-960/factoryconcept2.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Faraday Future</span></p><p class="caption">A concept rendering of Faraday Future's Nevada production facility.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The Faraday Future plant is expected to <a href="http://www.faradayfuture.com/news/2015-12-10-faraday-future-looks-to-set-up-shop-in-north-las-vegas.html">create about 4,500 jobs</a> in an area of Nevada that was nearly insolvent just a couple years ago.</p><p>Morris told Business Insider <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-backing-faraday-future-2016-3">last month</a> that Faraday Future's as-yet-unseen production vehicles were undergoing cold-weather testing in the Midwest earlier this year.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/drive-chevy-tesla-killer-bolt-ces-2016-1">This is what it's like to drive Chevy's Tesla-killer</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="w2azY2MDE6jevu96_5PjRoz4j9PcxEbo" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

The company that showed us its 1,000-horsepower electric supercar is buying up land for its massive factory in Nevada

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=305ryPvU6A8">Apple</a></span></p><p class="caption">Even fancy ads can't up the HomePod's appeal.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Analysts at Deutsche Bank said Apple's HomePod smart speaker has "missed the mark" because it's too limited and expensive compared to Google and Amazon's competitors.</strong></li><li><strong>This is important, because smart speakers might be the gateway for big tech firms into the growing smart home market.</strong></li><li><strong>Amazon and Google currently dominate the smart speaker market and have managed to get their personal assistants into the homes of millions of people.</strong></li><li><strong>Apple needed to get the HomePod right the first time if it wanted to dominate smart home products, the analysts said.</strong></li><li><strong>Now it might be too late.</strong></li></ul><p><br />Apple has, at times, looked invincible. It's close to becoming the first $1 trillion company, and it has maintained high profit margins <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-installed-base-2018-3?IR=T">even as sales of its core product</a>, the iPhone, fall.</p><p>But its HomePod smart speaker, its first big product innovation since the Apple Watch, is looking like an expensive mistake. And that early misstep might cost Apple an important new market.</p><p>That's according to Deutsche Bank's brutal analysis of the HomePod's performance and its importance in smart homes.</p><p>In an investor note, analysts at the bank wrote: "We believe that Apple had a real opportunity to become a major player in the smart home with its introduction of the HomePod smart speaker. However, poor reviews and a significant fall-off in demand post the launch suggest the company has missed the mark."</p><p><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/apple-homepod-limitations-things-it-cant-do-2018-1/#1-homepod-cant-pair-with-android-phones-1">Reviewers have found that the HomePod has major limitations</a>, like not being able to pair with Android phones, and not playing well with streaming services other than Apple Music. All of these issues could be fixed in later iterations or with a software update, but it might be too late.</p><p>Deutsche Bank predicted that devices featuring personal assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri will be vital to smart homes. It's important to get early attempts right, in order to influence how consumers think about future smart home products. Apple has probably missed its chance to shape that narrative.</p><p>Here's what the analysts wrote, emphasis ours:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"[We] think big tech companies have larger intentions beyond giving consumers an amusing way to get the weather or play music. While today's devices are relatively simple and have limited capabilities, we believe they represent the future of how consumers will interact with their home environment.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"In our mind, these devices are the first explorers making contact in a new world; behind these devices we see a wave of new solutions, tied to the VPA [virtual personal assistant], that are ready to take over the rest of the home. <strong>As a result, being early may be critical to a company's success as it drives initial lock-in</strong>."</p><p>In other words, Apple's early stumble with the HomePod might cost it the entire smart home market.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>AP</span></p><p class="caption">The HomePod.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The HomePod was meant to take on the Amazon Echo, Google's Home speaker, and even companies like Sonos. The Echo <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/amazons-hold-smart-speaker-market-slipping-2018-3">is the most popular smart speaker</a> in the US, though Google's Home is gaining. But the HomePod is pricey. At $349 or £319, it's $200 more expensive than its rivals.</p><p>"Apple decided to stick with its premium pricing strategy, introducing the HomePod at $349," the analysts wrote. "In our view, this essentially limits the product's market appeal to Apple fans who will pay anything for a new Apple device and to consumers with high disposable income."</p><h2>For the HomePod to be a knockout success, Apple would need to persuade all 40 million Apple Music subscribers to buy one</h2><p>The HomePod's limitations means it's only appealing to hardcore fans of Apple Music, given it doesn't integrate well with the likes of Spotify. As Deutsche Bank noted, one way to predict the HomePod's future success is to look at how many Apple Music subscribers there are.</p><p>Apple has said it has 40 million paying subscribers - that's growing, but it's still behind market leader Spotify with 73 million paying subscribers.</p><p>If every Apple Music subscriber bought a HomePod, it might add an extra $0.90 to Apple's earnings per share, Deutsche Bank calculated. But the analysts "view this assumption as unrealistically high", since not every Apple Music subscriber wants a HomePod. And no other Apple product has managed to hit unit sales of 40 million in its first year. Given the HomePod's limitations, it's unlikely that's the product to buck that trend.</p><p>The analysts estimated that Apple has cut speaker production to 200,000 to 300,000 units per month, in line with reports from Chinese media, meaning the firm would ship around 3-4 million speakers in 2018. That's considerably worse than the competition: <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazon-says-it-sold-tens-of-millions-of-echos-other-alexa-devices-during-holiday-shopping-season/">Amazon said it sold "tens of millions"</a> of speakers over the holiday period in 2017, while <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/5/16855982/google-home-sales-figures-holidays-2017">The Verge calculated</a> that Google sold around 6 million Home speakers between October and January alone.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dronehunter-hunts-unauthorized-rogue-drones-captures-them-2018-3">This 'DroneHunter' allows authorities take down rogue drones</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Apple's mistakes with HomePod will cost it a huge new market, according to a brutal Deutsche Bank analysis

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Faraday</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>After months of speculation, the electric car startup Faraday Future finally revealed its first concept car on Monday at a press event in Las Vegas during CES.</p><p>The autonomous, Batmobile-like car, called the FFZERO1, is a race car that boasts more than 1,000 horsepower and can go from zero to 60 in under 60 seconds. It features four motors, one at each wheel, and can reach a top speed of 200 miles per hour.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>faraday Future</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In addition, the <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/faraday-future-richard-kim-interview-2015-12" target="_blank">car is highly-connected,</a> and is capable of learning a driver's preferences so that it will automatically adjust to each driver's' preferences.</p><p>"I think it is the most breathtaking project that I have ever worked on or that I have ever seen," Richard Kim, Faraday Future's head designer, told Tech Insider.  "The designers that I have worked with here are 10 plus years in the business, they are world class, and we all think it's going to be the showcar of the decade."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Faraday Future</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>But before you get too excited, Faraday's first concept is just that, a "showcar," and is not likely to hitting the road any time soon, if ever.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Faraday Future</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>While the company does have plans to have its cars on the road by 2020, the vehicle unveiled Monday is not its first production vehicle. It is a concept car and it cannot actually be driven.</p><p>Faraday didn't rule out the possibility of it eventually going into limited production, but it will likely be awhile before we know if this will actually happen.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Faraday Future</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Rather, the company said the FFZERO1 is meant to showcase the company's design vision and engineering platform.</p><p>"The concept car is not our first production concept car, but it is a very distant cousin," Kim said.</p><p>"It has the same engineering skateboard, but it's done in a more intense performance based sort of concept. So if you take all the values from our company, crank up the volume and the performance, that is what the concept car is," he said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Faraday Future</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>In other words, while the FFZERO1 is a really souped up version of what the company plans to roll out to the masses, many of its features will be included in production models.</p><p>The most important thing the production cars and the FFZERO1 will have in common is the engineering platform on which they are built.</p><p>Faraday Future's Variable Platform Architecture (VPA) is a modular engineering system designed specifically for electric vehicles. Basically, the skateboard-style chassis can easily be adjusted by changing the lengths of the rails and other structures.</p><p>In addition, Faraday engineers also developed a new battery structure that is arranged in rows or as Faraday calls it, "strings." Adding or removing strings allows the company to change the battery capacity. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Faraday Future</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Combined, the new platform enables the company to develop new wheelbases and build a variety of electric vehicles quickly and efficiently.</p><p>"The modular platform can be changed in physical size using a very easy technique. The battery pack has been architected in a way that enables different size battery packs to be quickly and easily used," Nick Sampson,  Faraday's vice president of research and development, told Tech Insider.</p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Having designed, developed, and engineered one element of it, you practically replicate that element a number of times as we want bigger and bigger packs. This is different to how everybody is currently doing it."</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The company said its production cars will also have the same highly connected, predictive features shown in the concept car as well as a similar interface, with the smartphone having a reserved spot in the steering column. </span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gene-munster-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-apple-car-2015-12">Everything you need to know about the Apple car</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="M5bzFoeTriKT2CKmCb5QsY6xftrOAzTs" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You Searched For "vpa" and got 3 results

The company that showed us its 1,000-horsepower electric supercar is buying up land for its massive factory in Nevada

Bryan Logan

Apple's mistakes with HomePod will cost it a huge new market, according to a brutal Deutsche Bank analysis

Shona Ghosh

Tesla rival Faraday Future just revealed its vision of the future of cars

Cadie Thompson

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