In Tesla Motors, Silicon Valley now has its very own car company. And in CEO Elon Musk, its very own colorful car mogul. A self-made billionaire, Musk is the type of maverick tech geek other geeks like to root for, and the perfect public persona for a startup automaker intent on disrupting the conventional car industry. Musk's sometimes abrasive, almost cocky style, combined with his success at bucking the system by creating cars that appeal to buyers thanks to their form, function, and innovation recalls another tech icon: late Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs.

So reports this week that Apple and Tesla held meetings last spring is like red meat to the rabid fans of the respective brands. And the prospect of the two companies working together makes for a tempting a range of what-if scenarios, if rumors of an Apple-Tesla alliance are to be believed.

The recent round of speculation started with an article in the San Francisco Chronicle that revealed that Apple's head of mergers and acquisitions, Adrian Perica, met with Musk last spring, lending credence to German banking analyst Adnaan Ahmad's call for Apple to buy Tesla in a high-profile "open letter" he penned last October to Apple CEO Tim Cook.

In a Wednesday appearance on Bloomberg TV, Musk confirmed that Tesla has "had conversations with Apple." He declined to elaborate, but said an acquisition was "very unlikely" because it would shift Tesla's focus from building the best electric car.

Still, observers see benefits for both companies from such a collaboration. As the demand for phones and tablets begins to flatten, Apple is eyeing growing and lucrative industries for opportunities, and the rapidly expanding connected car market is a good fit in many respects. While Apple is now dipping a toe into the automotive infotainment market, it's well known that Jobs's "dream before he died was to design an iCar," according to J. Crew CEO and Apple board member Mickey Drexler.

Would Consumers Want an iCar?

An Apple-designed, sub-branded Tesla vehicle could hold a lot of appeal for people who may not otherwise care much about cars but have an affinity for the Cupertino's high-priced products. And for Tesla, access to Apple's brand cache and deep pockets could create a compelling case for some type of collaboration.

The timing is also perfect. It's become almost a common meme that the car industry is ripe for disruption. And Tesla has already quieted doubters by chipping away at the established automotive monolith and an antiquated dealership model using an unorthodox method of selling cars in shopping malls–just a few doors down from Apple Stores in some cases–and in "galleries" instead of traditional showrooms and lots.

Apple rival Google has also been making inroads into the auto industry with its self-driving technology and is reportedly looking to make its own self-driving car. Since the search giant first revealed that it had surreptitiously logged close to 150,000 miles using its own self-driving technology, several car companies have accelerated their own autonomous car programs.

Since the popular Tesla Model S has been outselling luxury vehicles in upscale markets, the auto industry is now taking seriously this new threat from Silicon Valley. And Tesla's next target is a lower-priced, more mainstream model. So what started out as a crazy California dream from the perspective of Detroit, Tokyo, and Stuttgart to create not only a new kind of EV but also a charging infrastructure to support it has quickly turned into Tesla giving traditional automakers cause for concern. Just imagine the anxiety that an Apple-Tesla alliance could provoke.

Here's another interesting wrinkled and wild idea: The San Francisco Chronicle also reported that Apple is "heavily exploring medical devices, specifically sensor technology that can help predict heart attacks …by studying the sound blood makes at it flows through arteries." Ford is already working on ways to extract biometric information from vehicles and leverage it for access to the lucrative health care market. So it's not difficult to draw a line between the growing market for health monitoring and a rapidly aging driving population as graying boomers refuse to give up their car keys.

Analyst Bill Kreher told the Chronicle that "Apple must increasingly rely on new products to reignite growth beyond the vision" of Steve Jobs. "They need the next big thing," he added. And an Apple-Tesla mashup with Elon Musk serving as a figurehead follow-up to Steve Jobs could be a really big thing.

Further Reading

Cars & Auto Reviews