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Apple Met With California DMV to Review Autonomous Vehicle Regulations
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If the Apple car is electric, which I would certainly hope that it would have to be, they can already be testing it indoors. No emissions, no sound, no dirty oil...
I applaud the progress in autonomous driving cars. I think that would be so much more efficient that today's drivers. We would no longer be sitting at stoplights as long, the traffic might be better as computers reroute and plan ahead for traffic. There would be easier paths for emergency vehicles as they push through nonemergency vehicles quicker. There would be zero DUI incidents. Cars could go pick up the kids at school. Perhaps, eventually we would not even own cars??? Perhaps you just pay a fee to use transportation such as we do for public transport and a Uber type of system would deliver a vehicle to you for your transportation. I look forward to this day. I am glad we are not leaving this transportation advancement to Detroit to be squelched. The biggest hurdle is political, which is heavily influenced by Detroit.
Go Google, Apple, Tesla, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Google, Tesla Motors, Nissan, BMW, Honda and others!!!! Push us!
I applaud the progress in autonomous driving cars. I think that would be so much more efficient that today's drivers. We would no longer be sitting at stoplights as long, the traffic might be better as computers reroute and plan ahead for traffic. There would be easier paths for emergency vehicles as they push through nonemergency vehicles quicker. There would be zero DUI incidents. Cars could go pick up the kids at school. Perhaps, eventually we would not even own cars??? Perhaps you just pay a fee to use transportation such as we do for public transport and a Uber type of system would deliver a vehicle to you for your transportation. I look forward to this day. I am glad we are not leaving this transportation advancement to Detroit to be squelched. The biggest hurdle is political, which is heavily influenced by Detroit.
Go Google, Apple, Tesla, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Google, Tesla Motors, Nissan, BMW, Honda and others!!!! Push us!
There's enough smoke that it's looking like there's a fire, but it still makes no sense to me. It's not even close to Apple's wheelhouse, it definitely won't get Apple's upgrade cycles. It makes the Apple HDTV look like a brilliant business move.
As for driving - personally, I'd like my car to drive itself in two cases. One is on the highways, I've got an hour or two of rather boring driving (hopefully). The other is parking lots at the store. Drop me off at the entrance, go find parking somewhere (take a parking spot far out to leave the close spots for those who have to park manually). When I'm done shopping, signal the car to meet me up front where I load up and drive off. Big box stores and malls might even adapt to having an entrance just for automated cars.
As for driving - personally, I'd like my car to drive itself in two cases. One is on the highways, I've got an hour or two of rather boring driving (hopefully). The other is parking lots at the store. Drop me off at the entrance, go find parking somewhere (take a parking spot far out to leave the close spots for those who have to park manually). When I'm done shopping, signal the car to meet me up front where I load up and drive off. Big box stores and malls might even adapt to having an entrance just for automated cars.
Apple really is doing the same exact thing it did back in the 1990's after it kicked out Steve Jobs, it's completely losing focus and entering WAY too many markets. Now they're trying to entire the automotive industry?
5 years ago if you would have told me that Apple would one day enter the automotive industry, I would have thought you were ignorant.
They really do seem intent on entering every unprofitable industry they can find.
5 years ago if you would have told me that Apple would one day enter the automotive industry, I would have thought you were ignorant.
They really do seem intent on entering every unprofitable industry they can find.
In case you haven't noticed Apple took out the word "Computer" from its name even while Steve was alive so that should tell you something. Apple is a company focused on the area of personal computing / technology. It is bringing its software / platform / ecosystem strengths to products it feels it can make a difference and make a lot of money.
TV has 2% profit margin (maybe 5% at the high end), this has 10-15% in the high end car segment (40K+) (with current manufactuing and cars), but simplified cars and manufacturing and a focus on the in cockpit experience (of which Apple would be miles ahead) could get 15-20% (Apple now gets 20%).
Also, cars are getting less and less about driving, and more and more about electronics. Cars are the ultimate experience vehicule (no pun intended) and Apple is all about selling experience, not a product.
Not sure why it would be out of Apple's wheelhouse when Apple is producing phones with thousands of parts, including large scale metal works and even matalurgy in the hundreds of millions a year (just thinking of the complexity of building this new supply chain every year is mind boggling) and with a nearly complete refresh every year. Compare to that, the car refresh rate is kinda staid, cause most of the car would certainly not be refreshed every year.
Also, cars is one of the biggest revenue industry in the world with huge barriers to entry.
This is an ideal space for a company with Apple's tech, brand and financial capacity.
Cars, especially the experience inside the cockpit is also ripe for disruption. Even Tesla, is basically doing the same thing as 110 years ago, except with a different motor/fuel.
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There is way too much info right now to say... Oh its just car play, they're hired drive-train people for god's sake... Tesla's been talking about poaching and you get rumors left and right about all sort of different aspects of Apple and cars.
Even granting the many parts and metallurgy work done on iPhones, that's several scales of difference between making a phone and making a car. The sales chain is completely different (as Tesla has been running into) to say nothing of support - you aren't going to drive your car up to the Apple Store and drive away with a replacement.
But even if Apple can do all the things necessary to make and sell cars profitably - Apple makes a 35-50% gross margin on an iPhone, and those tend to be replaced every two years on average. Your estimate is that Apple will make 15-20% gross margin on the hypothetical Apple Car, and people hold on to cars for half a decade or more.
And you say "cars are getting less and less about driving, and more and more about electronics" - but the electronics are only secondary after the driving is good, gas mileage is good (or alternative power source with all its challenges is practical and provides sufficient performance). In terms of what makes a good car, #1 is the way it drives, #2 is look, #3 is interior (you can argue #2 and #3 should be swapped) and only after all those is the electronics and dashboard and all that stuff even considered. There's no reason to believe Apple can do significantly better on drive or even look and interior, so the competitive issue is way down on the consideration list.
Maybe they'll completely surprise me, blow me away with something about what could be done that I haven't envisioned.
But they haven't yet. Not that I haven't been delighted by Apple products since 1976. But if someone had said "Apple is going to do an MP3 player", I'd figure it would find a way for good battery life, great storage, and UI. Same with iPhone and iPad. I wouldn't have known HOW they'd solve those problems, but I'd have guessed where their advantage comes in. I don't see an Apple advantage in cars that overturns the market.
Yeah, it's a technology company, not just a computer company.
But cars...? Really? They're gonna try and get in to cars?
Let me guess, it will be faux-gold colored, will come with a variety of $5,000 swappable bumpers (that are really just plastic), and they'll find some way to let Burberry decorate the interior.
Back in the 1990's I remember screaming from the rooftops at Apple because they were entering so many pointless markets that never stood a chance of ever making any money. And that's exactly what happened. And the same thing is happening now. And now it seems they are doing the same exact thing all over again. Which is really sort of sad, because they're ignoring the real important technologies that are going to revolutionize our lives over the next 20 years. They can only increase their profits from iPhones for so much longer now, smartphones are becoming a commodity and now that they've entered China there aren't many markets left to enter.
How will you feel about your children using the car by themselves?
Strap in the kids, and the car then drives them to see your auntie or uncle for the day, after the car has dropped you off at work?
If you have a wife, then waiting "minutes" for a driverless car to arrive is going to be nothing in comparison with waiting for a female to "get ready" to go anywhere!
I doubt it will be legal any time soon to strap infants into a car and then close them in alone any time soon.
I don't have a wife.If you have a wife, then waiting "minutes" for a driverless car to arrive is going to be nothing in comparison with waiting for a female to "get ready" to go anywhere!
The rest of your statement doesn't need a response.
That does not mean Apple is making an entire car! Obviously Apple is going to be making the drive train for other manufacturers: "The all new 2021 Thunderbird. Made by Ford. Driven by Apple."
/jk
The points I was making is that, in the future, if we carry on, along this path, car's will be seen in a totally different way than they are now.
Now, you work like crazy at work to buy the car you want. Perhaps paying the cost of it off over many years.
You wash and polish it each week perhaps.
It sits outside your home.
Regardless of what anyone here says, a car IS seen, by society as a statement about you and your life.
Very much so in business, what car you drive SHOUTS about you and how well you are doing in life, and affect how you are treated by others around you.
The car, you buy generally depreciates like crazy after you buy it, halving in value often within the 1st 3 years of ownership.
This expensive and crazy depreciating mechanical device, that costs you a lot just to keep on the road with additional tax's and insurance premiums etc, just sits there outside your home and office for 95%+ of the day doing nothing.
This whole scenario above is going to seem totally crazy in future generations of people.
If there are millions of cars of all types just roaming around the whole world, ready to come get you, or any member of your family in minutes to take you anywhere to do anything. From 2 miles to the corner store, to 500 miles to your holiday destination, why would anyone go through all the troubles and expense of owning one?
I appreciate it's hard for you, me and others reading this to totally accept this as a concept as it's not the world we were born into or live in.
But if you were born into a world where cars, like say Netflix, or iTunes music were just a "On demand" service, then buying one would be the weird thing to do.
Who would want to stick with the same car day after day, week after week, when you could, if you wanted have a difference car every day?
Scenario could be.
Early morning, you all get into the car as a family, the car drives to the stores and drops your wife off, then carries on to the office and drops you off, then takes the kids on to drop them off at the school, then comes back to the store to pick your wife up and takes her home, then it goes off to drive others around.
Or it could be your wife to the office, you to the store, or any combination of the above.
Very interesting potential future, I still think we will see RIOTS in the streets in the USA when it comes to millions of job losses.
Guarantee we will see new reports with driverless cars being set on fire by those who'd jobs are going to be lost.
Millions of humans are not going to simply accept this.
Google developing the tech and Samsung building cars would seem a much more realistic scenario.
Samsung are in a vastly better position to build physical cars TODAY, and would of course be far more open to work with Google on the software/control side.
Samsung are in a vastly better position to build physical cars TODAY, and would of course be far more open to work with Google on the software/control side.
It's easy to say this until you get a phone call from the police telling you your young wife and 2 children are dead because your new car veered off into the path of the lorry, does not seem to be any reason at the moment for the accident, it may be a "software glitch" in the latest iCarOS.
Apple are working on the latest iCarOS which should help, but of course all software has bugs that can surface at times, and you clicked "OK" in the user agreement that you would not hold Apple legally liable for any accidents before you started using the car.
You lost your family due to a bug, no one can be held to blame. Never mind.
Everyone going to be happy with this scenario ?
Remember that we live in a world where virtually no one works on a farm, but we still have schools closed for two to three months during the summer. Some of the changes you suggest will happen (as well as others that you lack the vision to predict). Other things will remain the same, because of inertia. Heinlein predicted robot vacuum cleaners by 1970, and "Flexible Frank" doing the dishes in 2000. Here it is, 2015, and we have robot vacuum cleaners. Not only is there no moon base, but we haven't set foot on the moon in 40 years.
There is going to be revolutionary change in society over the next 500 years. Over the next twenty years, it's going to be evolutionary.
25 years ago my mother was traveling north on an interstate highway (like an M road) just north of West, Texas when it began to rain. A southbound car lost control and spun across the wide grassy median directly into her path. My mother suffered bruises and a collapsed lung. The driver of the other car, whose car door she struck, was killed. His wife in the passenger seat survived.
No one was held at fault. It was just the slick roads. If you drive those same roads today, there is a barrier between the north and southbound lanes. Glad I could brighten your day! I know you'll never allow your family to get into an automobile again, because now you know such accidents can happen. I know this because you're expecting your scenario to have that effect on the rest of us, and you're projecting your own expected reaction to it onto us.
They could be.
But their rival is also building driverless cars. I don't see Apple making something as small as a car OS (a reskinned iPad?) whilst their rivals are planning further ahead. Driverless cars are going to be huge so it makes sense for Apple to join in too.
But maybe that's all driverless cars will be. They're all made by Ford, Toyota, etc with space for you or Apple or Google to drop in the "brains" OS.
I do not believe there should be more than one brain allowed across the entire world for driverless cars.
many aspects of them can be different, but the, let's call it moral/brain module should be a worldwide standard that all humans understand.
Think of it like a human we all know. A human we understand will do the same thing given the same scenario and circumstances.
Do you really wish to be being driven, or driving with cars on the road that will do different things based upon which of say a dozen companies have made their idea of what a AI brain should be like.
Irrespective of what car size, shape, model, colour, speed etc etc. There should be one standard across the board, understood by everyone, across the entire world moral/brain in place.
I do not believe anyone wants to live in a future world where their child was killed by an Apple car but would of been alive if it was a Samsung car, or Killed by a Google car, but alive if it was an Apple car, or any permutation of the above or other makes.
many aspects of them can be different, but the, let's call it moral/brain module should be a worldwide standard that all humans understand.
Think of it like a human we all know. A human we understand will do the same thing given the same scenario and circumstances.
Do you really wish to be being driven, or driving with cars on the road that will do different things based upon which of say a dozen companies have made their idea of what a AI brain should be like.
Irrespective of what car size, shape, model, colour, speed etc etc. There should be one standard across the board, understood by everyone, across the entire world moral/brain in place.
I do not believe anyone wants to live in a future world where their child was killed by an Apple car but would of been alive if it was a Samsung car, or Killed by a Google car, but alive if it was an Apple car, or any permutation of the above or other makes.
Apple Maps were abysmally bad in Japan for the first few years and to be honest I haven't really checked back since.
I recently tried to give apple maps a second chance after giving up on it soon after launch. It tried to take me down some railroad tracks to get to my destination, and even when I ignored that turn it wouldn't reroute to a better way. So I switched back to google maps, got where I was going without having to drive on the railroad tracks and will be waiting a few more years to think about trying apple maps again. So I do hope if they are using it to guide an autonomous vehicle they make major improvements first.
Cars are about perfect for apple's upgrade cycles, most of them get small updates every year and then every 3-5 years get a bigger one. That would match perfectly with the timing of updates that Apple likes to do.