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If Apple, that will be an electric bicycle, skateboard or perhaps just one skate... and probably still be a stretch for that household to buy 2 of them, even on 12-24 months at 0%.

Apple can't make "inexpensive." For that, you look to Asian companies. Even an Apple handkerchief (a piece of cloth) rolled out at $20.

Apple makes great stuff... and buyers pay a great premium for them. "A" is not for Affordable.
Could still be an aspirational product. The point is...a very high quality, differentiated small vehicle instead of yet another oversized SUV. Price per pound of car might still be quite high. The point is...less pounds of car.
 
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I wonder about how big the box will be

Box.jpg


...but wheels sold separately. ;)
 
In all likelihood, the wiper blades and cabin filters will need to be replaced with genuine Apple replacement parts. Otherwise, error messages abound.

You know, because otherwise, there could be "security" issues with third-party parts.
Will also run twice as fast with half the battery.
 
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My interest level in a self-driving car: ZERO. Cars are meant to be driven. If I don't want to drive I can call an Uber, Lyft or taxi or get someone else to drive. If I have to choose between having a Porsche and owning a self-driving vehicle my choice is already done.

My interest in a self-driving car is high for others...every day I commute I see at least one event (and usually several) that makes me wish the other driver was in a car driving itself and didn't have a steering wheel so the idiot in the front seat couldn't do anything. Honestly, I'm constantly amazed at how bad some drivers are, and have avoided lots of accidents only because I'm really good at defensive driving.

Automated cars really will cut down on the number of accidents, and allow people who can't drive to have some independence...they will be a good thing once the tech is sorted out, and that will happen eventually. Maybe then I won't have to sit waiting for the idiot at the four way stop who has the right of way but just waits for me to go first...
 
lmao by then, Tesla will have put most legacy automakers in dire straits and have full self driving solved

im sure apple will totally eat Tesla's lunch, except for the fact that every apple car sold will earn Tesla profits from superchargers 🤣
It absolutely won’t. They have been claiming that since they first began. They are nowhere near it. If anything Tesla will slide, with manufacturers making electric cars now, as well as more affordable ones to come to market in the next few years.
 
Turns out that despite the amount of money you throw at it, autonomous driving is just a really, really difficult egg to crack. Like honestly even the best systems we can field today are barely any better than the projects DARPA was reviewing back in, what, 2004? The computers and sensors are small enough to be hidden away in a passenger car now, I guess. So that's progress.
Not true at all. Tesla's latest FSD Beta V12 is the path to cracking general self-driving. It's astounding.
 
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My interest level in a self-driving car: ZERO. Cars are meant to be driven. If I don't want to drive I can call an Uber, Lyft or taxi or get someone else to drive. If I have to choose between having a Porsche and owning a self-driving vehicle my choice is already done.

I agree but it seems to be the future, like electric cars, whether we like it or not.
 
It absolutely won’t. They have been claiming that since they first began. They are nowhere near it. If anything Tesla will slide, with manufacturers making electric cars now, as well as more affordable ones to come to market in the next few years.
Tesla will solve it first. In EVs, Tesla will extend their lead. The OEMs are struggling to get close to profitability in EVs while Tesla enjoys massive margins.
 
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Yeah, sure. Tesla owns that space, and has for more than a decade. Apple may want a piece of that pie, but it's going to be hard to get it because Tesla operates with the same intensity and urgency that Apple use to demonstrate under Jobs, which was not coincidently the last time Apple was churning out Tesla-like, world-changing tech.

It's going to take a complete fundamental shift from top to bottom before Apple realizes anything even remotely close to something as ambitious as self-driving automobiles.
 
Yep, automakers don't want to under Apple's totalitarian dictates.

Automakers are their own dictators, too. How many Fords leave the factory with Toyoto or Chevy parts installed? None.

I can't believe it's been 10 years since Apple embarked on this journey, and it's going to be another 4 before we see anything. Why Apple is trying to make their own car is beyond me. They should partner with a startup that can carry its own risk and visions.
 
Yeah, sure. Tesla owns that space, and has for more than a decade. Apple may want a piece of that pie, but it's going to be hard to get it because Tesla operates with the same intensity and urgency that Apple use to demonstrate under Jobs, which was not coincidently the last time Apple was churning out Tesla-like, world-changing tech.

It's going to take a complete fundamental shift from top to bottom before Apple realizes anything even remotely close to something as ambitious as self-driving automobiles.

Downvoted because you're wrong about the "last time". Apple continues to church out reliable, industry-inspiring products. They just don't have the "big announcement" feel because they've perfected the technology. How can you improve on a great design, except to make change for change's sake?

With Macs and iPods, they were able to be creative with designs and form factors. But with phones and tablets... how co you improve on "a slab of glass"? It's not easy.

Today's Apple products work beautiful together... it's that ecosystem magic that really makes them shine. If I can't find the Apple TV remote, I grab my phone swipe down and start controlling the Apple TV using my phone. I love that sort of seamless integration!
 
Yeah, sure. Tesla owns that space, and has for more than a decade. Apple may want a piece of that pie, but it's going to be hard to get it because Tesla operates with the same intensity and urgency that Apple use to demonstrate under Jobs, which was not coincidently the last time Apple was churning out Tesla-like, world-changing tech.

It's going to take a complete fundamental shift from top to bottom before Apple realizes anything even remotely close to something as ambitious as self-driving automobiles.

The M-series processors changed the Mac platform overnight. Then the rest of the industry has been trying to catch up. We wouldn't have today's iPhones, iPads, Apple TVs, Apple Watches, HomePods and now Vision Pro without Apple investing heavily into their own silicon. Not a chance!
 
Not true at all. Tesla's latest FSD Beta V12 is the path to cracking general self-driving. It's astounding.
I'm well aware of the progress Tesla has made. Their main contribution to the space is speed and packaging. They've got a much more compact system working at about double the maximum speeds that were reliable ten years ago. Part of that is their optimizations, part of that is the general forward march of technology. Back in the DARPA days you had to have a server rack to process the same amount of information you can run through an iPad these days.

But speaking from the perspective of someone who has worked in vehicle autonomy (and had self-driving cars try to do me in more than once) the chasm between very advanced driver assist features like what Tesla calls FSD and actual autonomous vehicles is far wider than you're giving it credit for.

Like, don't get me wrong, humans are good problem solvers, and we'll get there eventually. But not in the near future.
 
The more Apple pushes this back, the more I might actually be able to afford it! Hoping to have my house paid off around 2030/2031. But level 2 is pretty hilarious. My Telluride can already do that easily. Hopefully by 2031 they've got Level 4. Kinda funny how all of these huge tech companies can't overcome that last hurdle. We can get so close, but that last 1% is almost impossible.

No way I'm buying a first gen Apple Car unless some of my investments go bonkers by then. I'll let all you people with loads of disposable income beta test it first! You know the price is going to be outrageous.
 
Teslas are the vehicle equivalent of owning an Android, but no doubt they've got a massive first-mover advantage on the charging network though which I personally view as the real profit driver for the future of that company.
I think of them as the Apple of vehicles. All about vertical integration and owning the whole experience.
 
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I'm well aware of the progress Tesla has made. Their main contribution to the space is speed and packaging. They've got a much more compact system working at about double the maximum speeds that were reliable ten years ago. Part of that is their optimizations, part of that is the general forward march of technology. Back in the DARPA days you had to have a server rack to process the same amount of information you can run through an iPad these days.

But speaking from the perspective of someone who has worked in vehicle autonomy (and had self-driving cars try to do me in more than once) the chasm between very advanced driver assist features like what Tesla calls FSD and actual autonomous vehicles is far wider than you're giving it credit for.

Like, don't get me wrong, humans are good problem solvers, and we'll get there eventually. But not in the near future.
Plus, our traffic infrastructure is not ready for fully autonomous vehicles.

Even if we had the tech, a car driving like a human driver would not be acceptable. The risk level and number of violations would be far too high to be acceptable.

Level 4 within limited and very well mapped areas in good weather conditions is doable. Waymo & al. are doing it. Add some construction works with poor signs, a number of pedestrians and cyclists everywhere and possibly dark, ice, snow, and slush — then the task is far more complicated. (And that is where I drive.)

Look at almost any traffic code. They tend to start by saying that drivers should exercise caution, or something on those lines. How do you define “careful” to a computer? There are a lot of situations where there is a courtroom packed with highly educated lawyers trying to find out the correct interpretation of rules after something has happened.

Making the traffic environment unambiguous is an enormous task.
 
After Apple saw the Apple Vision Pro sell out in 10 minutes they were like what the heck, lets revive the Apple Car! 😆 Full speed ahead buddy!
 
The problem with hydrogen is its poor energy efficiency. Also, the distribution infrastructure is complex and costly. It is difficult to see what could happen to make hydrogen better than batteries in small vehicles.
It is sort of ironic that currently one of the most common and widely distributed locations were hydrogen gas is readily available is from oil refineries that produce gasoline. Hydrogen gas is currently a waste product of the current gasoline refinement process
 
My interest level in a self-driving car: ZERO. Cars are meant to be driven. If I don't want to drive I can call an Uber, Lyft or taxi or get someone else to drive. If I have to choose between having a Porsche and owning a self-driving vehicle my choice is already done.
My interest in a self driving car is very high. I would gain maybe ten hours a week. That is equivalent to about 6 % longer life expectancy.

I don’t like driving.
 
USA recognizes 4 levels of "self driving" cars (SDC). GMC has had a level 2 vehicle on the road for about 20 months. I have owned one for about 20 months.. Basically it drives itself on 4-lane highways and some 2-lane roads. Once you engage the system it maintains speed, if a slower vehicle is in front of it the sensors check and will accelerate, engage turn signal, move into passing lane when safe , pass slower vehicle, engage merge turn signal, safely merge into the travel lane, and when safe end turn signals. As long as I'm watching the road ahead I don't have to intervene in the process. If someone cuts in front of me w/o warning the system reacts faster than I .
It's not perfect and you do need to pay attention because of the knuckleheads around you .Ya never know when a sleeping driver will t-bone you.
 
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