2019... as if Tesla has yet to dominate the market... and chargers.
Apple no longer leads the market.
Apple no longer leads the market.
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Apple Car Development Speeds Up, 2019 Launch Date Targeted
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I predict $30,000 starting price. $40k max starting price.
Hopefully they do pre-orders.
what will be offered differently to the 2 options? 160 miles version vs. 640 miles*?
*if you turn off map, wifi, 3g, air-con, headlights, sensors, music by manually going into the in-car Settings app...
Mhmm.
I personally love the i3. But I do agree with the point I think you were making in that electric vehicles tend to try to be a bit 'different' and stand out. Which doesn't always result in attractive vehicles.
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This is the main thing I'm looking forward to with an Apple car. They have money and influence to not only get the battery life/range right, but they also have the ability to put proper charging infrastructure in place worldwide. One of the biggest issues with electric vehicles right now is that it's actually quite difficult to find charging points outside your own home - although they do exist. Apple could put them everywhere there's a gas station, in theory.
I think it needs someone like Apple to come along and do electric vehicles right. Because all we've had so far is trial and error, really.
CarPlay has to actually work properly first! It's one of the buggiest, fiddliest bits of software that I've ever seen. I wonder if anyone in their Dev Team actually use CarPlay in their own cars, it's so bad! Don't get me wrong, it's got great potential, but the people involved in it's development clearly don't use it otherwise there wouldn't be so many Rookie mistakes made with how they've done stuff.
Apple doesn't lead that market.... because it hasn't entered in it yet
Explain Maps? Easy they are simply getting the best maps service ready, it takes time ya know, it is not like Google Maps was flawless on day 1...... 
R
Apple is speeding up development on its electric car project, reports The Wall Street Journal, giving it a "committed project" label and targeting 2019 as a prospective shipping date. To facilitate a faster launch, Apple will be greatly expanding the number of people working on the car.Apple has already been aggressively hiring for its car project, poaching employees from companies like Ford, General Motors, Tesla, Volkswagen, and more. Many of its recent hires have expertise in connected and autonomous vehicle systems.
The BMW i3, which Apple reportedly considered using as a base for the Apple Car
Though there have been indications suggesting Apple is exploring autonomous vehicles as part of its car project, The Wall Street Journal's sources say the first car Apple releases will not be driverless, with that functionality perhaps coming at a later date.
There have been also other signs pointing towards expanded work on the car project. In May, Apple began looking into secure facilities in the Bay Area where a prototype could be tested, reportedly meeting up with officials at GoMentum Station, a secure test facility for connected and autonomous vehicles. Apple also met with DMV officials in August to discuss California's autonomous vehicle regulations.
It remains unclear if Apple will develop its "Apple Car" from the ground up or if it will team up with an existing auto manufacturer. Rumors have suggested Apple has held discussions with BMW over a potential partnership that would see the BMW i3 used as the basis for the Apple Car, but those talks have reportedly not progressed into a deal.
The Wall Street Journal warns that Apple's 2019 target date might not be the date in which Apple will actually ship the car, instead suggesting it could point towards the date that engineers confirm the main features of the product. It's also possible that given the scope of the project there could be delays, with "people familiar with the project" expressing skepticism that 2019 is a reasonable target date.
In an interview with Stephen Colbert last week, Tim Cook was asked about the car project, but he unsurprisingly avoided the question with a vague statement. "We look at a number of things along the way, and we decide to really put our energies on a few of those," he said.
Article Link: Apple Car Development Speeds Up, 2019 Launch Date Targeted
There is no electric grid around that can sustain the tremendous load of charging thousands of electric cars day after day. If electric cars were here today and had fast charging batteries, their power draw on the grid would be so high they would put the lights out -- leaving us all in the dark.
But hydrogen cars store their energy in the fuel molecules themselves -- eliminating the need to transfer huge amounts of raw power all at once. This distinction alone makes hydrogen the only workable solution for mass transportation. The battery car folks got it wrong -- and they are steering us wrong.
But hydrogen cars store their energy in the fuel molecules themselves -- eliminating the need to transfer huge amounts of raw power all at once. This distinction alone makes hydrogen the only workable solution for mass transportation. The battery car folks got it wrong -- and they are steering us wrong.
I'm sure Apple Maps will be really good in 2019.Explain Maps? Easy they are simply getting the best maps service ready, it takes time ya know, it is not like Google Maps was flawless on day 1......
Maps is really good here .... and i am not even in the U.S.A. .... so there are ups and downs....same as on Google Maps.
People have to realize mapping is not an easy task, does Apple have issue? SURE, are they working on fixing them? SURE.
wow, just checked your signature. I wasn´t aware that Tim Cook said something stupid and short-visioned like that.
You mean microprocessors...including those in sensors and actuators...
An electric vehicle simplifies the quantity of ECUs needed.
Many functions are typically controlled by 10-30 ECU, and most of the increase is in infotainment features that can be easily eliminate just by integrating a smartphone.
This is a key observation and point: the markets that Apple likes to enter are the ones which have 'disruption' opportunity where they can then reap hefty profits.
As such, the first "car industry" question is ... just which part of the industry is the player who is currently making fat profits that would be the target ripe for disruption?
Except that there is no "problem" here with technology or innovation: a battery charger isn't Rocket Science and effectively, the only barrier to availability is to throw money at it for infrastructure build-out.
Perhaps if Apple were making a $1000 moped instead of an Automobile, but the economies of scale reality is that each of the bigger automakers easily sell vastly more units than Porsche...and Porsche sells ~10x more than Tesla. Small production volumes and Apple-sized profit margins simply do not align at mainstream consumer price points.
I can see a market demand for self-driving cars for the elderly to maintain an independent lifestyle, and from that perspective, a limited range electric vehicle will serve for doing grocery shopping, etc.
However, even here there's questions on "how much range?" because it doesn't take much forgetfulness in not regularly plugging it in, etc .. although an induction coil "door mat" on the floor of the garage can take care of some of this and is a mature technology (even if it isn't presently a commercial product).
The technological readiness of all this ... is a good question. On the one hand, Apple can "buy" their way into much of the classical automotive part, relying on their IT for their 'secret sauce' differentiation, and by employing some clean slate, they can likely streamline/eliminate a lot of the digital complexity mess which is found in current legacy manufacturers. Overall, the key metric I'd look for here is what specifications they're using on their power bus (eg, not 12v) to see if they've really gone clean sheet or not. The other big part is the 'secret sauce' such as autonomous navigation/steering and due to Apple's secretive nature, we really don't know how well their intelligent control systems are maturing to get a handle on how much risk is present here.
-hh
The size of the group at Apple responsible for "financial engineering" dwarfs the size and scope every other R&D project. Part of their responsibilities is to actively manage public perceptions and expectations, and "leaked" stories like this
car meme are just part and parcel of the ongoing game. The recent stock split was designed to lure in retail investors so that larger institutions could take profits without affecting the share price. Look at the schedule of share repurchases. All of this financial and PR activity is driven by the compensation plans of the top executives. They have to keep the fairy tale alive long enough to cash out, and they will do and spend whatever it takes to meet that goal.
At least Uber is a transportation company. I see them making a car is more akin to UPS making their own fleet of delivery vehicles.
I don't think Google (or Apple) should be in the automotive business.
Honestly I'm hoping by the time this comes out, I won't need to own a personal vehicle, and I can just call one up from my iPhone and it'll drive over and let me get in, then drive me wherever I want to go and that's that. Sort of like Uber, but without a driver.
I know regulations are likely to require a person be in any moving autonomous vehicles for a while, but at some point we're going to let these things drive completely solo, and our roads will be a lot safer for it. I really look forward to that day.
I know regulations are likely to require a person be in any moving autonomous vehicles for a while, but at some point we're going to let these things drive completely solo, and our roads will be a lot safer for it. I really look forward to that day.
Just in case you don't follow Tesla like we follow Apple, they have a mass market car due in late 2017 that will have a base price of $35,000. Apple will surely compete in this price range. Current Teslas are expensive yes but the mass market car has always been Tesla's goal, it just takes time for the technology to come down in cost.
"A scratch? That's just normal wear and tear, Dude. Did you keep the box it came in?"
I hope the legal system lets autonomous vehicles on the road, even if they often fail and kill people, as they will likely kill and injure far less people than all the texting and/or drunks currently "driving" on the public roads. The liability laws need to be changed to make it affordable for these vehicles to kill this lower number of people, as the cost to society will end up a least a bit lower.
Palm didn't think a computer company could successfully make an "Apple difference" on something like a phone. Henry Ford's customer base didn't think he could achieve an "Apple difference" with his cars over a faster horse. Apple and Ford are still around, but they've paved over many of the horse tracks and trails around the Bay area.