I really like the mockup of the dash they demoed .... but that's about all I like about any of this I've heard.
What I mean is:
1. It makes no sense at all to try to produce a self-driving vehicle by 2025 that doesn't even need a steering wheel or brake pedal. That assumes the whole self-driving problem has been solved. It's painfully obvious how far that is from reality when you look at the major players who DO actively have products out there. As Tesla has discovered, the "edge cases" absolutely destroy the dream. A truly self-driving vehicle needs to be intelligent enough to spot emergency vehicles and act appropriately, pulling over safely to the shoulder when one needs to get through (or when it determines the police are trying to pull *it* over). When it spots them on the shoulder, it needs to make every effort to get over to the left at least one lane from the shoulder as well. (That's the law now in many states in the USA.) It needs to be able to try to dodge large potholes in roads as well as debris in the road. It needs to navigate traffic circles properly and ideally, know about legal vs illegal U-turns, and do legal ones in a sensible manner. It will need to know about area where making a right turn on red is illegal, vs where it's acceptable, and how to handle oddities such as intersections where one lane instructs you to "continue turning without stopping on a red signal" while the other doesn't. It will need to deal with these bicycle lanes some cities have and know about express lanes on highways (deciding if it's wise to use one based on where the GPS navigation says you'll need to be exiting). It needs to reliably stop for deer and other animals in the road, and needs to know about not only railroad crossings but cases where a city still uses streetcars or trolleys and expects you to yield for them as they approach. It has to stop for pedestrians who are about to cross at marked crossings too. These are pretty much all things Tesla's "full self driving beta" hasn't yet mastered.
2. My experience with my iPhone 13 Pro and Apple Carplay isn't even that great. There are times I plug in the phone to the lightning to USB cable and the stereo system doesn't recognize it and launch CarPlay. Wireless CarPlay can't reliably stream music from my phone without pauses/glitches in the audio at least once every 4 or 5 minutes. If Apple can't get that right, why do I trust them to get an entire Car OS right?
3. Really, if Apple wants people to be willing to pay the (most likely premium) price for an "Apple car", it needs to be really sporty. A big dome shaped roof-line, similar to a VW Beetle, is NOT going to be a big hit. They need to do something more like a Tesla roadster or what Fisker did with their first vehicle. Make it really cool to be seen in. Apple computers are stylish and not just boring beige boxes or bricks. Don't make the car look like some half-circle shaped thing that looks like it's owned by a taxi company.
What I mean is:
1. It makes no sense at all to try to produce a self-driving vehicle by 2025 that doesn't even need a steering wheel or brake pedal. That assumes the whole self-driving problem has been solved. It's painfully obvious how far that is from reality when you look at the major players who DO actively have products out there. As Tesla has discovered, the "edge cases" absolutely destroy the dream. A truly self-driving vehicle needs to be intelligent enough to spot emergency vehicles and act appropriately, pulling over safely to the shoulder when one needs to get through (or when it determines the police are trying to pull *it* over). When it spots them on the shoulder, it needs to make every effort to get over to the left at least one lane from the shoulder as well. (That's the law now in many states in the USA.) It needs to be able to try to dodge large potholes in roads as well as debris in the road. It needs to navigate traffic circles properly and ideally, know about legal vs illegal U-turns, and do legal ones in a sensible manner. It will need to know about area where making a right turn on red is illegal, vs where it's acceptable, and how to handle oddities such as intersections where one lane instructs you to "continue turning without stopping on a red signal" while the other doesn't. It will need to deal with these bicycle lanes some cities have and know about express lanes on highways (deciding if it's wise to use one based on where the GPS navigation says you'll need to be exiting). It needs to reliably stop for deer and other animals in the road, and needs to know about not only railroad crossings but cases where a city still uses streetcars or trolleys and expects you to yield for them as they approach. It has to stop for pedestrians who are about to cross at marked crossings too. These are pretty much all things Tesla's "full self driving beta" hasn't yet mastered.
2. My experience with my iPhone 13 Pro and Apple Carplay isn't even that great. There are times I plug in the phone to the lightning to USB cable and the stereo system doesn't recognize it and launch CarPlay. Wireless CarPlay can't reliably stream music from my phone without pauses/glitches in the audio at least once every 4 or 5 minutes. If Apple can't get that right, why do I trust them to get an entire Car OS right?
3. Really, if Apple wants people to be willing to pay the (most likely premium) price for an "Apple car", it needs to be really sporty. A big dome shaped roof-line, similar to a VW Beetle, is NOT going to be a big hit. They need to do something more like a Tesla roadster or what Fisker did with their first vehicle. Make it really cool to be seen in. Apple computers are stylish and not just boring beige boxes or bricks. Don't make the car look like some half-circle shaped thing that looks like it's owned by a taxi company.
