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Maybe cause they don't have jobs to buy/maintain them.

The thought of self driving cars does not interest me. I grew up on 90's tuners and love driving my Mr2 turbo. I would never want give up control.


True but you're into cars. So am I, but even personally speaking most of my friends have no interest.
 
The reason why Apple hasn't made further progress negotiating TV deals is simple: Steve Jobs died. Jobs was a made man with the content companies since he headed Pixar as well. Tim Cook isn't and will forever be the enemy to the content companies because Cook heads Apple and nothing else.

And you know this because of your position in the content industry here in Los Angeles? Maybe we've met?

Just for the RECORD... The "content" companies need Apple more than Apple needs them - long term. It's the content companies SWEATING the fact that Apple sells thru a more than a QUARTER OF A BILLION Content Consuming devices a year.

I think you get the PICTURE.

Pun intended.
 
Here is a highway in New Mexico. They don't seem to have funds to pave it. The population density of there is less than one person per square mile. Where you live in Europe the there are many people and many cars so there are many people who share the cost of roads maintenance. NM is 3x larger than the Netherlands and has 1/8th as many people so they have longer lower cost roads there.

IMAG2119.jpg
In my New Mexico experience, no one would refer to the road in that picture as a "highway". Certainly in Texas we would say "dirt track".

This is more typical of a minor New Mexico highway, in my personal experience.
new-mexico1.jpg
 
I can only imagine how great the packaging for the Apple Car will be.

And we might just see wheel bolts with a proprietary head (adapters sold separately), a battery that's not user replaceable (glued in place) and no standard 12v plugs on board - only USB-C.
 
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They need to fix Apple Maps beforehand.

I don't want my self-driving car to send me into a lake.
 
Why would it suck for pedestrians? The cars would see there was some one wanting to cross the road and stop. It might be better because the automatic cars would actually obey the law and give pedestrians the right of way.

Here is California the law is that at every intersection if there is a person trying to cross the road you must stop for them. But even so we know drivers might not see us so we are careful. But if every car was automated and has 12 cameras and all cars shared information then I'd could be sure I'd be seen.

Cars are mind readers? Pedestrians are fickle beasts that don'T travel in a predictable way. If anyone's been in a place were decent foot traffic, that should be obvious. There could also be a continuous random flux of people of varying speed wanting to cross at certain hours, some quite slow. Want cars to be stopped all day long? How would having the whole street stop randomly help traffic flow?

Also, having cars stop if someone, jaywalks is one thing (that person is certainly not expecting perfect security...), but expecting people to feel comfortable throwing themselves in front of traffic without any predictable local traffic calming is not reasonable (urbanists would have a fit!). There is a lot of effort done right now in promoting foot traffic in cities and this would certainly run counter to it. People, don't react well when seeing cars coming at them, even when they "know" there supposed to stop. It is a unconscious psychological effect; not a conscious level one.

Even for roads, when two high traffic roads cross, they'll still need lights even they are shorter (ignoring pedestrian requirements ) (even if those signals are not shown), because otherwise the chance of accidents, even with computers would go up a lot as speeds go up. Lights (or speed adjustments in the cars on the road) would still allow traffic to collect (say in kind of tight automated road trains) and not merely use the whole street segment. This would allow much higher speeds and less stopping than a random flow. You still have to deal with physics even with automated cars.

Only way to make this sort of work for security (but not traffic flow) would be to put trackers on each person (or have Lidar at the corner relaying the local info to the cars) and having people who want to cross announce their intentions to cross with a signal a few seconds in advance, cars approaching from afar couldn't predict for sure what pedestrians would do (also characterizing traffic) and at 40mph, braking is not instantaneous. Pressing a button to cross is despised by pedestrians already and only really used in high car traffic with a low pedestrian count.
 
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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.

maybe.
but massachusetts' roads also go through higher temperature shifts, are covered with salt for half the year, and are continually being scraped with heavy plows..

might be some of the difference you see between a road in new england vs one in s.carolina.
 
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It's not an impossibility but there are many, many more low-hanging fruits to pick from. Take TV, for instance. There were more rumors about Apple reinventing TV for years and nothing came to fruition yet. And that's a market that is much more inline with Apple's established businesses—and one that has big profit margins and is in need of a redesign..
Where are you seeing the big profits in the TV business? What has happened in the last years is companies desperately trying to sell TVs with more gimmicks that nobody wants, without much success.
 
There is a VAST difference between Getting in the car you love, going out for the day, driving for pleasure, which many love and will love for generations to come.

And getting up, half awake, still dark, rain/cold, getting stuck within moments in the traffic jam/rush hour boring commute to work, and back home in the evening.

Both very different, mentally, uses for your means of transport.
You are right, there is a difference.

But I think most people will agree that if you were making a commute in a car you love, like me in any of my current cars, that commute becomes so much more enjoyable.

Until so ***** hits the side of your beautiful car because they were changing lanes while doing their make up.

Perhaps auto-driven cars could be a good thing.
 
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You are right, there is a difference.

But I think most people will agree that if you were making a commute in a car you love, like me in any of my current cars, that commute becomes so much more enjoyable.

Until so ***** hits the side of your beautiful car because they were changing lanes while doing their make up.

Perhaps auto-driven cars could be a good thing.

Funny, the censors are extra sensitive on this forum. It is barely a bad word.
 
What a picture. You really have such bad roads in the USA?

They sure do! Some parts of developed Europe are pretty bad, some are very well kept like the Netherlands and the UK, some are pretty crappy like Germany, but you 'aint seen nothing until you travel to America.
 
I disagree.

Before the iPhone, most people used cheap Nokias and the like. Business used Blackberry. The immature market of smartphones was commonly derided as awful. The market was ripe for the picking. Everyone was clamouring for an Apple Phone.

Cars? This is a very mature market. Cars won't get any faster. Their fundamental job of getting from A to B in comfort has been achieved. People enjoy their cars and they enjoy driving. There is no great cry for an Apple Car. Certainly not for electric cars, which are rightly seen as expensive and impractical. Self-driving simply won't happen. Petrol or hybrid is the future for several decades, at least.

As such, if Apple do bring out a car, it will be a vanity project much like the overpriced Apple Watch. It will be very expensive and bought by a tiny niche like the Apple Watch.

All well and good, but not part of the traditional Apple ethos. We've been spoilt by Steve Jobs's revolutionary products.

I disagree.

1) the very definition of disrupting a market implies that it's mature. The cellphone market was already huge and the definition of smartphone was well established and blackberries (and knockoffs) were being adopted at a very fast rate by consumers.

2) not everyone is happy with their cars, especially as the focal point of the driving experience is increasingly centering around the infotainment center... because to your point, the mechanics of cars (speed, handling, etc) is good enough for most people.

As an example, Ford recently took a big hit on their customer sat ratings because of their Sync system, not the actual car.

We're clearly at an intersection where technology is playing a greater role in cars than ever before and no manufacturer has been able to deliver on that front. Sounds to me like a market ripe for disruption.
 
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..
Time to let go of Steve is gone. Under his watch their were plenty of failures too.
As for $ 50,000 for an iCar, better make that 100,000. The Tesla I looked at last week was $ 100,000 plus. (Not that I can afford or would ever spend that)

I also think we should get upset already that the iCar only comes with 16 GB ...uumm strike that 16 PS but Apple will make it use that very efficiently with an acceleration card from Intel.

Also, the CarI from Samsung can't be far behind.
 
Now what numbers are you using to accuse me of being an "Apple-paid shill"?

It was a joke. Hence the smiley.

As for your case - are there any (legal!) industries that are even more profitable than Apple?
If Apple is going "iCar", they've probably thought this through. And probably for longer than a typical car-ride.

As pointed out, Apple has repeatedly demonstrated that you can't transpose results from other companies's over to Apple.

I do agree with everybody that this whole "thing" sounds surreal.
If you sell it, somebody has to maintain it. Are they going to build car repair shops for it?
Most of the current stores certainly aren't equipped for it.
Nor are they located ideally.
 
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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.

Cold weather states like Massachusetts have winter weather. This brings snow, which melts during the day, and refreezes at night. Ice entering small cracks in the road expands and destroys roads rapidly. In the Northeast, significant potholes can open overnight. It has nothing to do with government; it's entirely due to winter. I've lived in the region for over sixty years, including a number of decades in MA. In MA, roads are constantly being resurfaced in the warmer months, when work can be done. I'm not surprised you don't see it in SC, due to the more temperate weather.
 
Things that make you go hmmm....

I wonder if the reason for Apple's giant circular building with underground parkade has a parkade level for testing their electric vehicles. Do they really need that many levels underground for parking?
 
Wait, that can't be true. Massachusetts is a liberal state. And California is a ... wait, that can't be true!

It isn't true. Bad roads in MA are due to winter, and get repaired regularly in the warmer months.

But this is the kind of illogical argument that passes for conversation in places such as SC. It confirms a pre-conception, automatically paralyzing the parts of the brain that would normally be used to ask intelligent questions. I think some chemical in the water down there must be causing that.
 
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This former naval station won't be secure unless the airspace above it can be protected by Anti-Drone devices.
The minute Apple start any form of testing a squadron of drones will be in the air photographing everything it does (or does not do).
If I were Apple I'd use this place but as a decoy. If they really want to really innovate in this area then they need to be able to do it out of the gaze of the Papparazzi/Tech Press.

I hear Larry E has a copy of Tracey Island available for rent. :)
 
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