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Apple CEO Says it is Considering a Manufacturing Facility in Indonesia

Apple CEO Tim Cook (C) speaks alongside Indonesian Minister of Communication and Information Budi Arie Setiadi (R) and Indonesian Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita (L) during a press conference after meeting with Indonesia's President Joko Widodo at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on April 17, 2024. (Photo by BAY ISMOYO / AFP)
Apple CEO Tim Cook (C) speaks alongside Indonesian Minister of Communication and Information Budi Arie Setiadi (R) and Indonesian Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita (L) during a press conference after meeting with Indonesia's President Joko Widodo at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on April 17, 2024. (Photo by BAY ISMOYO / AFP)
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Apple CEO Says it is Considering a Manufacturing Facility in Indonesia

Apple CEO Tim Cook (C) speaks alongside Indonesian Minister of Communication and Information Budi Arie Setiadi (R) and Indonesian Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita (L) during a press conference after meeting with Indonesia's President Joko Widodo at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on April 17, 2024. (Photo by BAY ISMOYO / AFP)
Apple CEO Tim Cook (C) speaks alongside Indonesian Minister of Communication and Information Budi Arie Setiadi (R) and Indonesian Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita (L) during a press conference after meeting with Indonesia's President Joko Widodo at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on April 17, 2024. (Photo by BAY ISMOYO / AFP)

Apple Inc will look into building a manufacturing facility in Indonesia, its CEO said on Wednesday after meeting President Joko Widodo, who hoped the tech giant would increase its local content by partnering with domestic firms.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook arrived in Jakarta on Tuesday after visiting Vietnam, Reuters reported. He met with Jokowi, as the president is popularly known, and will inaugurate its fourth developer academy on the island of Bali.
"We talked about the president's desire to see manufacturing in the country, and it is something that we will look at," Cook told reporters after the meeting.
Apple has no manufacturing facilities in Indonesia, but since 2018 it has been setting up app developer academies, which including the new academy have a total cost of 1.6 trillion rupiah ($99 million).
Indonesia's industry minister, Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, who also attended the meeting, told reporters that if Apple decided to build manufacturing facility in Indonesia, it would have the capacity to produce for export.
"We will discuss how Apple's facility in Indonesia could become a global supply chain," he said, adding that the government said that even if Apple didn't built a factory, it could partner with Indonesian companies to obtain components.
Apple has met Indonesia's 35% local content requirement to sell its products by investing in developer academies, Agus said, but the government hoped that number could be pushed higher with a manufacturing facility.
Apple has based much of its key manufacturing of iPads, AirPods and Apple Watches in Vietnam; suppliers for MacBooks are also investing in the country.
Indonesia has a huge, tech-savvy population, making the Southeast Asian nation a key target market for tech-related investment.

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US Self-driving Car Companies Seek Boost under Trump

A Ford Fusion hybrid, Level 4 autonomous vehicle, used by Ford Motor and Domino's Pizza to test a self-driving pizza delivery car in Michigan, is displayed during Press Days of the North American International Auto Show at Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan, US, January 16, 2018. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo
A Ford Fusion hybrid, Level 4 autonomous vehicle, used by Ford Motor and Domino's Pizza to test a self-driving pizza delivery car in Michigan, is displayed during Press Days of the North American International Auto Show at Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan, US, January 16, 2018. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo
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US Self-driving Car Companies Seek Boost under Trump

A Ford Fusion hybrid, Level 4 autonomous vehicle, used by Ford Motor and Domino's Pizza to test a self-driving pizza delivery car in Michigan, is displayed during Press Days of the North American International Auto Show at Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan, US, January 16, 2018. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo
A Ford Fusion hybrid, Level 4 autonomous vehicle, used by Ford Motor and Domino's Pizza to test a self-driving pizza delivery car in Michigan, is displayed during Press Days of the North American International Auto Show at Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan, US, January 16, 2018. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo

A group representing self-driving car companies on Tuesday called on the US government to do more to speed the deployment of autonomous vehicles and remove barriers to adoption.

"The federal government is the one that needs to lead when it comes to vehicle design, construction and performance, and we just have not seen enough action out of the federal government in recent years," Jeff Farrah, who heads the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association, said in an interview.

The group includes Volkswagen Ford, Alphabet's Waymo, Amazon.com's Zoox, Uber and others, Reuters reported.

The group released a policy framework calling on the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) to "assert its responsibility over the design, construction, and performance of autonomous vehicles and increase its efforts in key areas."

The group added that "federal inaction has created regulatory uncertainty" and warned China is determined to take the United States lead on autonomous vehicle technology.

"We want to make sure there is a clear pathway to getting these next-generation vehicles on the road," said Farrah.

"We have been frustrated by the lack of progress."

In December 2023, the group and others called on the USDOT to do more.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in an interview on Monday the government was ensuring that self-driving cars would be much better than human drivers.

"I think being very rigorous in these early stages is helping these technologies start to meet their potential to save lives," Buttigieg said, adding the oversight would boost public acceptance.

The industry faces scrutiny after a pedestrian was seriously injured in October 2023 by a General Motors Cruise vehicle. The USDOT has opened investigations into self-driving vehicles operated by Cruise, Waymo and Zoox.

The autonomous vehicle group wants Congress to clarify human controls are unnecessary in automated vehicles meeting performance standards and allow companies to disable a self-driving vehicles' manual controls. It also called for creating a national AV safety data repository that would be available to state transportation agencies.

Last month, the USDOT proposed streamlining reviews of petitions to deploy self-driving vehicles without human controls like steering wheels or brake pedals.

Efforts in Congress to make it easier to deploy robotaxis on US roads without human controls have been stymied for years but may be boosted when President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Reuters and other outlets have reported Trump wants to ease deployment barriers for self-driving vehicles. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a close adviser to Trump, said in October the automaker would roll out driverless ride-hailing services in 2025.