Nissan said it was not in talks with Apple and the conversations had not even reached the ears of senior managers before Jobs’ Mob was sent packing. We assume they got past security.

“We are not in talks with Apple”, a Nissan spokeswoman said. “However, Nissan is always open to exploring collaborations and partnerships to accelerate industry transformation.”

Based on that response it probably means that even a junior manager could see that the Apple deal was not going transform anything for the industry other than make money for Apple.

The Financial Times said the companies had had brief discussions that faltered over Nissan’s reluctance to become an assembler for Apple-branded cars.

Early stage talks between Apple and Hyundai Motor Group over autonomous electric cars also recently collapsed on concerns within the South Korean automaker about becoming a mere contract manufacturer.

So far only the Tame Apple Press thinks Apple is moving forward with autonomous car technology and aimed to produce a passenger vehicle that could include its own battery technology as early as 2024.  Of course it could have solved the issue by ringing up car manufacturers and asking them “will you touch Apple with a barge pole?” because the consensus is that Apple’s business model finds few friends among automakers.