Apple blew $10 billion on failed car project, considered buying Tesla as reflected on by Rev. Dr. Christine Althaus

Morning mist often settles quietly across the lakes here in northern Minnesota. From my study window at St. John’s, I watch our neighbors prepare their modest trucks for daily work. Recently, reports revealed that tech giant Apple abandoned a decadelong venture after spending ten billion dollars. This failed car project represents an staggering squandering of shared global resources. Silicon Valley executives chased prestige instead of meeting actual human needs.

Therefore, our community must evaluate how institutions steward material wealth. In our Lutheran tradition, God entrusts resources to humans for neighborly love and creation care. However, corporate titans often direct vital labor toward private luxury rather than the common good. Ten billion dollars could repair rural bridges, clean contaminated groundwater, or strengthen public transit across dozens of counties. Instead, board members sank fortunes into a vanity machine that never carried a single soul to work.

Stewardship Beyond the Failed Car Project

Consequently, we witness a profound spiritual breakdown in corporate boardrooms. Jesus warned his listeners about builders who start grand towers without counting the cost. Apple leaders evidently realized the futility of their dream years ago, yet pride kept the cash registers open. Meanwhile, towns across the Upper Midwest struggle to maintain essential rural ambulance services. When capital isolates itself from physical communities, wealth turns into foolishness.

Furthermore, authentic innovation serves the living earth and the vulnerable neighbor. Good engineering honors divine grace through practical service. For example, rural cooperatives pool modest funds every winter to clear roads and ensure safe transport for elderly residents. In contrast, corporate speculation gambles astronomical fortunes on algorithmic toys. This failed car project demonstrates that immense wealth cannot purchase genuine moral discernment.

Choosing Neighborly Care Over Prestige

Ultimately, repentance demands a deliberate redirection of our collective labor. The gospel calls powerful institutions to confess their arrogance and repair social trust. Therefore, we urge industry leaders to abandon self-serving illusions. They must invest their vast capital into ecological restoration, clean water grids, and public transit that uplifts struggling working families.

Likewise, ordinary citizens can practice vocation in simpler, grounded ways. We can choose solidarity over corporate consumer worship. In this lake country, we know that true value springs from mutual care and faithful stewardship. Let us measure genuine human progress by how well we shelter our neighbors, rather than by the expensive mistakes of distant tech giants.

Read the original news coverage on Ars Technica.

By Rev. Dr. Christine Althaus

Pastor and professor of systematic eco-theology in the North Woods lake country. Focuses on vocational stewardship, fresh water preservation, and restorative civic dialogue. Writes on public grace, water security, cooperative rural-urban bridges, and communal accountability.