Munster On Apple: 'Autonomy Is Going To Take Longer Than People Think'

On the second installment of the "Frontier Tech With Gene Munster" podcast, Loup Ventures founder Gene Munster and Benzinga PreMarket Prep co-host Joel Elconin discussed key issues pertaining to several of the most popular tech stocks in the market.

Apple's Management Shuffle

Munster started off by discussing the impact the departure of Chief Design Officer Jony Ive will have on Apple, Inc. AAPL.

“Jony Ive has been less involved in products over call it the last four years. His big focus over the last three years has been Apple Park, essentially designing every detail of their new headquarters,” Munster said on the podcast, which was taped July 2.

Given that Ive has been taking a more distant approach to product design, Munster said his departure from Apple isn’t the real news. The venture capitalist said he's mostly displeased with the way Apple chose to initially fill Ive’s position.

“Specifically, you have a critical vertical like design that is headed by two people that report to Jeff Williams, who is an operations person. The reason why we believe Apple created that structure is to start to slowly elevate Jeff Williams as a potential successor to Tim Cook,” Munster said.

Autonomy Race

In the near term, Munster said Apple’s Drive.ai self-driving vehicle acquisition is not a signal that a driverless Apple car is imminent.

“Autonomy is going to take longer than people think. I’ve always been in the camp that this is going to be more profound than people can even imagine, but will in fact take longer, and that’s why you see so many of these companies not making it."

Listen to the full interview in the clip below: