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Apple in Discussions With Bay Area Test Track Focused on Self-Driving Cars

I think autonomous driving will be a gradual transition, not one big leap. And I think the final "full self-driving" end point is going to be MANY years away. (Hope I'm wrong, but look at voice recognition and voice command: how many decades it has spent moving from "first product for sale" to "quite good but still not completely reliable".)

In the meantime, the limited or assisted-driving phases along the way will be great. They can still save a ton of lives. And hassle!
 
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TimUSCA said:
Not in the majority of the USA, no... in South Carolina, I have never seen a road that bad. But in Massachusetts, I saw them all the time because the government is corrupt.
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Huh? Lived in MA most of me life and have never seen a road like that. That road is like that because it's not a public road and not maintained. It's a private facility as mentioned in the article. MA and NH have rougher roads because it gets so cold. Every year they do most all of the major roads over but after the winter pot holes naturally appear especially from all the salt from having to plow so much each year. Assuming your speaking of stereo types rather than someone who actually lives around here.
 
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JCrz said:
People need to give up on this idea of Apple building a car. They will never do it. They are working on in-car electronics. And they should work with Tesla (or buy Tesla, too).

Profit margins on cars are slim. The market is saturated with established companies. And there's enough liability to bring down the company.
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This rumor doesn't come from some sort of wishful thinking by Apple fans, few of whom were clamoring for an Apple car.
Personally, I still find this kind of nuts for many reasons including those you mentioned. But there are way too many leaks suggesting that Apple is indeed working on some kind of car and not just in-car electronics. However, I don't see anything in the Guardian article specifically pointing to a self-driving car.
Apple is highly secretive so using the facility mentioned in the article would make perfect sense for them even if they are working on a regular or an electric car.
 
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JCrz said:
People need to give up on this idea of Apple building a car. They will never do it. They are working on in-car electronics. And they should work with Tesla (or buy Tesla, too).

Profit margins on cars are slim. The market is saturated with established companies. And there's enough liability to bring down the company.
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Slim profit margins and a saturated market were both comments people made regarding the phone industry before Apple entered it.

Those are only a problem if you plan on just entering the market and not being a disruptive player, if you're just planning on being a me too player.

If Apple moves quickly enough on making an autonomous vehicle, that could be a serious disruption to the market. I'd be willing to pay over a year's salary for a car if it ran reliably for over a decade and was fully autonomous - that gives Apple plenty of room for profit margin, I think. If Apple enters with a product like that before anyone else has it, the competition will immediately fall apart just like RIM/Blackberry/Windows Phone did.

But Apple will have to move quickly, because Tesla is already barreling down that path. Their already available cars require little maintenance and have a lot of automation. And, last I heard, they said they would have a car available for ~$40K by the end of next year... if that car comes with comparable automation features, they could beat Apple to the punch.
 
Self-driving cars are pie in the sky. They're not going to happen for the foreseeable future.

Electric cars are fundamentally flawed. They do share one thing in common with the Apple Watch Edition, though: they're both both pointless gimmicks.

Wake me up when Apple next does something exciting. The car won't be it. I mean, I loved 2010, but it's five years and counting.
 
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JCrz said:
People need to give up on this idea of Apple building a car. They will never do it. They are working on in-car electronics. And they should work with Tesla (or buy Tesla, too).

Profit margins on cars are slim. The market is saturated with established companies. And there's enough liability to bring down the company.
Click to expand...
So "they will never do it" meaning they have no interest in doing cars, but then a few words later you suggest they buy Tesla? Profit margins are incredibly thin on computers and phones.. well actually they are for everyone "except" apple. So Apple can charge whatever they want to make as much profit as they need. The market is established is horrible companies. Tesla is the first that is trying to shake it up. Just like the market was saturated with phones like Razrs, until Apple came and everyone had to up their game.

Once Tesla launches their entry level car and possible an Apple Car, with upgradeable hardware and technology like Tesla, all other manufactures will have to do the same to stay competitive. No more 300 to 500 to simply upgrade your mapping software software locations once a year, or other absurd upcharges.
 
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V.K. said:
This rumor doesn't come from some sort of wishful thinking by Apple fans, few of whom were clamoring for an Apple car.
Personally, I still find this kind of nuts for many reasons including those you mentioned. But there are way too many leaks suggesting that Apple is indeed working on some kind of car and not just in-car electronics. However, I don't see anything in the Guardian article specifically pointing to a self-driving car.
Apple is highly secretive so using the facility mentioned in the article would make perfect sense for them even if they are working on a regular or an electric car.
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Yep. I think self driving is a long ways off. But there's too much smoke for there not to be any fire. And let's not forget back in May Jony Ive gave up his day to day duites. His bio on Apple's website now says part of his responsibilities are "new ideas and future initiatives". I think a car would fall under that.

For everyone saying Apple is just working on in-car electronics, tell us who will they sell them to? Has any existing auto company shown an interest in having Apple provide the electronics for their cars? As far as Tesla goes Tim Cook specifically said Apple had no relationship with Tesla. He would not make that comment if Apple was secretly working with them. And if they were working together it would have leaked by now.
 
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Napsju said:
What a picture. You really have such bad roads in the USA?
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Yep. Almost every major city is like that. In Atlanta they are terrible.

Anyway this is terrible timing if it turns out to be true. All the data says the generation in their 20's now consider personal cars to not even be important to them.
 
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Benjamin Frost said:
Self-driving cars are pie in the sky. They're not going to happen for the foreseeable future.

Electric cars are fundamentally flawed. They do share one thing in common with the Apple Watch Edition, though: they're both both pointless gimmicks.

Wake me up when Apple next does something exciting. The car won't be it. I mean, I loved 2010, but it's five years and counting.
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Electric cars are the only way to eventually curtail fossil fuel usage and replace it when we run out. Not in our life time agreed.
To not explore this field would be dumb. Doesn't matter who does it.

I was too young when somebody said : "We will land on the moon", but I guarantee that if there were posts at the time they would have been similar to yours or others.
The fact something doesn't seem feasible hasn't stopped humans from trying anyway. (Heart transplantations, body part replacements, pacemakers etc.)

That is why we are were we are today and it will be figured out. Future generations will have to give up personal freedoms gradually due to outside forces (no more gas) and all drive (being driven) at the same speed🙂
 
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JCrz said:
People need to give up on this idea of Apple building a car. They will never do it. They are working on in-car electronics. And they should work with Tesla (or buy Tesla, too).

Profit margins on cars are slim. The market is saturated with established companies. And there's enough liability to bring down the company.
Click to expand...

Sounds a lot like the cellphone market before Apple introduced the iPhone.

Toyota hopes to make $23 billion in profits this year. If Apple can do as well as Toyota, it would boost their profits by about 50% provided their profits remain relatively flat.

Auto and healthcare are 2 huge industries that can move the needle for Apple and it's no surprise they seem to be focused in those areas lately.
 
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ArtOfWarfare said:
Slim profit margins and a saturated market were both comments people made regarding the phone industry before Apple entered it.

Those are only a problem if you plan on just entering the market and not being a disruptive player, if you're just planning on being a me too player.

If Apple moves quickly enough on making an autonomous vehicle, that could be a serious disruption to the market. I'd be willing to pay over a year's salary for a car if it ran reliably for over a decade and was fully autonomous - that gives Apple plenty of room for profit margin, I think. If Apple enters with a product like that before anyone else has it, the competition will immediately fall apart just like RIM/Blackberry/Windows Phone did.

But Apple will have to move quickly, because Tesla is already barreling down that path. Their already available cars require little maintenance and have a lot of automation. And, last I heard, they said they would have a car available for ~$40K by the end of next year... if that car comes with comparable automation features, they could beat Apple to the punch.
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A 10 year long reliable car, oh dear.. Sadly Apple can't do ios updates anymore without bricking handsets.. Steve is gone, so is the top notch QA.. And as far as destroying rivals.. Wow, I don't think Ferrari or Mercedes have anything to worry about anytime soon.. Dropong 400 bucks on a handset is a world apart from 50k on a car... Live in the real world my friend..
 
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