Apple Car Design Goals: No Steering Wheel or Brake Pedal, Flat Seats for Sleeping, Large Screens, and More

[Doomtomb]

More like Uber, less like Ford

 

[fernelius]

No steering wheels and brake pedals?

What are we supposed to rely on? Siri???

I can just imagine this….
”Hey, Siri, navigate to Toledo, Ohio.”
”Navigating to Toledo, España. Note that this trip will likely pass through an area with significant precipitation. Umbrella reminder.”
”No, Siri, Toledo, Ohio.”
”Forecast arrival in Toledo, España in 75 hours. This gives you time to take a long nap.”
{Lights dim. Seats flip down. Favorite Apple Music playlist begins — or one remotely close in name. Siri quits listening over the music.}

 

[Mc0]

I love driving and I'm a car enthusiast. I don't yet foresee myself riding a car with no steering wheel. It's just against the grain of something that brings me joy🤣. I also plan to drive my own grand kids to important milestones of their lives in a car with a steering wheel. This is a NO for me...

 

[yossi]

1. This is absolutely 100% never gonna happen
2. If this does happen, it will be a specific, dedicated use solution for closed environments like college campuses or specially billed neighborhoods.

There will NOT be a car like this driving around manhattan for many many decades

 

[jicon]

This is going to use a remote control with frustrating unintuitive controls in the dark, and easy to lose the keys, isn't it?

 

[jicon]

Apple isn’t going to make this available worldwide or even countrywide in one year. There are jurisdictions where self driving cars are permitted. For example, Ontario is getting ahead of this and wants to be a pioneering leader in the space. Legislation is already in place to roll out self driving lanes on highways once the technology is mature and turned on in existing cars with that capability.

Province, or City of Ontario? Province has more than enough boondoggles with intent for transport trucks not using the now privatized 407, exclusively clogging the 401 and 403. Also DF cancelled the electric car rebate for buyers and dealerships. I see the push for eventual digitized ID, but unless there's somehow lowered government costs with the proposed self-driving lane, I can't see that legislation going anywhere.

 

[Jarutais]

"SIRI, HIT THE BREAKS!!!!"

 

[_Spinn_]

Yeah no thanks. Wonder what the impact of an accident will be on people facing backwards vs those facing forward?

 

[Danfango]

Ooh backwards facing seats. I reckon it'll look like an SPV out of Captain Scarlet:

 

[kingtj1971]

No steering wheel? 🤣 What if you really need it for emergency? Watch the Twister movie.

This is the same goal Elon Musk hoped for too .... a self driving car with no steering wheel necessary. But he even realized it's so far in the future, it's nothing to worry about in anything headed towards production in the relatively near future. (He compromised by offering the cool-looking jet fighter type wheel on the most expensive "plaid" edition of the Model S. It's a little less functional than a traditional wheel since you can't grab its outer ring anyplace to turn it -- but especially with getting used to doing things a bit differently, is usable.)

I'd suspect that if Apple was able to bring a self-driving vehicle to market like what it's rumored to be working on here? It wouldn't be something your average customer would order for personal use. Rather, it would get sold to rental car agencies and to companies wanting a fleet of "Apple cars" as a business venture.

 

[Jim Lahey]

I wonder where the car doors will be located.

Doors will be a $9,999 option. $14,999 with height adjustable windows.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I wonder where the car doors will be located.

The seats must rotate to normal position. Else if seats are facing each other permanently, who are the seat-back screens for... drivers of other cars pulling up beside this one?

 

[Zdigital2015]

Feels less like a car and more like an Imperial Troop Transport, but potato/potato.

 

[ILoveCalvinCool]

This car sounds a lot like one of the "cars of the future" from the 1950s, which will be available for purchase no later than 1965.

 

[Audio_Monster]

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I more realistic way of think of it is a self-driving taxi.

 

[CJF93]

You may add the steering wheel option for ONLY $69,000.

 

[Nicole1980]

There wasn’t anyone else inside the company testing or using the butterfly keyboard? When the 12” MacBook was announced Phil Schiller got up on stage and made a big deal about this new keyboard design. I call BS on ONE person being responsible for ANYTHING Apple releases.

You are surely right, but I do feel for the few years after Jobs death that Ive's wielded and outsized amount of power inside apple. So if he was hard core pushing for something I think that would have won the day. Obviously we'll never know.

Other things he clearly pushed for (excessively thinness, limited ports) were bad ideas too. Either way, you can't disagree that he seems like a pretentious prick, lol.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Infrastructure is an important point. I live in a wealthy county in a wealthy state with a very well funded transportation department and still every car and truck we own has needed a tire replacement or repair almost on an annual basis because the potholes and road debris keep putting holes in them.

It’s been this bad for so long that a lot of people I know opt for tougher sport utility vehicles for family transportation instead of the typical mini van for the school run, that’s how crappy driving conditions are around here.

There’s just too much of the population living in conditions that aren’t whatever they have going on in Cupertino and Apple, I am sure, is aware of that. That being said, it does sound like this is service oriented and not meant for the average person/family to own individually. And for all I know they may be hoping to sell these big in other countries that are more oriented to public transportation in both infrastructure and cultural attitudes.

I do think they’re closer to getting this vehicle out there somehow, some way, than any of us are going to be comfortable with.

Apple has already figured out how to sell $699 wheels and get fans to rationalize them. For the Apple wheel business, potholes will be a gold mine.

 

[yossi]

I agree. It's even worse being the one having to write about it constantly for 8 years. I'm so over the Apple Car rumors.

Remember when a 65" OLED Apple TV was months away from being released?

 

[locoboi187]

It’s not a car as we know it. It’s a service.

To understand what Apple is aiming for, we have to wipe clear what we’ve known about cars and look to how the newer generation are using cars — at least in cities. Personal transport is becoming a service. In a world where Uber is ubiquitous, fewer and fewer young people are getting their drivers’ licenses because they can pull out their phone and within 5 minutes there’s a car pulling up, taking them to where they need to go. Those of us who grew up in a car era with the romance of driving one and owning one and washing it in the driveway — we are not the target, unless we want to be. Apple is looking way ahead.

Apple was never in a business position to sell cars. iPhones, iPads, Watches, AirPods and Macs are more expensive than their industry counterparts but they still fall within the price accessibility of a large enough portion of users that Apple can make a business out of it. The same is not true for cars. A car is already very expensive, add the Apple tax and only wealthy folks would be able to afford it. Apple is not in the rich customer exclusivity niche.

Apple is getting into this sector because they must, in order to compete. It’s no secret that Google is doing the same and they cannot allow themselves to be in a position where Google or other third parties control one of the largest services that could then dictate how Apple interacts with it.

These are going to be more like Apple Pods, than cars in the traditional sense of the word. You’ll tap your watch and a Pod will show up, take you to where you need to go and then pick up the next passenger. No driver, no user steering, all Apple experience inside.

There will always be cars that we drive ourselves and Apple seems to be doubling down on partnering with other manufacturers to bring their experience into those vehicles. But what Apple is releasing themselves, is leaping over that industry and into something completely new.

So basically Tesla. The car re-imagined. Tesla is also creating steering-wheel less cars for transport. Do either exist yet? No.

But the idea of what Apple is trying to do is nothing new.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Yeah no thanks. Wonder what the impact of an accident will be on people facing backwards vs those facing forward?

Incredible injuries. But we here will redirect to cheap Chinese chargers, user error, and/or point out how similar deaths have been realized in other autonomous cars, as if that rationalizes it somehow. Apple can do no wrong.

 

[MallardDuck]

No steering wheel or brake pedal is simply not going to fly with regulators, insurance companies, or, frankly, most drivers. Fully autonomous driving remains a dream.

 

[MallardDuck]

Maybe Jony has gone off the deep end.

Only if they're an inch wide and 1/4" "thin". Probably will have no plug for the seat belt and restrain passengers with magsafe wireless seatbelts.

 

[Alon1]

No steering wheels and brake pedals?

What are we supposed to rely on? Siri???

Don’t expect this thing to go over 35 mph, at least in the beginning.