Apple Receives Permit From California DMV to Test Self-Driving Cars [Updated]

[DevNull0]

And Mac Pro's are affiliated with Apple receiving Permits to Test self driving cars? You do know Apple has more than one Department that works on various projects within the Company?

I don't believe that's true anymore. Based on the past few years of product releases, Apple only has 2 qualified engineers left, one assigned to watch bands, one to dongles.

I remember back when Apple did have multiple development departments and almost every single mac would be updated once or twice a year, there would be meaningful new iPhone and iPads every year, and iPod was still a serious product instead of a joke. Innovative new products that didn't seem like April fool's jokes gone awry.

 

[mi7chy]

Jakub pronounced "Yakoob"?... no wonder Siri could not understand!

You're not the first to point that out. If you read the comments on YouTube they explained that Siri failed using both pronunciations. Also, if you notice in the video Google even pronounces it back the correct way so that's how much smarter it is to associate both pronunciations.

spizy2 weeks ago
Why do you pronounce Jakub "yakub w" on carplay but "Jacob w" with android?
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Hide replies


TheStraightPipes2 weeks ago
+spizy we have a separate video trying both



Cassius Marques2 weeks ago
Where? cause it seemed pretty biased. The whole video is great though.
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TheStraightPipes2 weeks ago
+Cassius Marques YouTube won't let me post links but we have a very short clip on streamable. We don't want to upload another YouTube video because it'll be too similar to this one

 

[I7guy]

Interesting but I think you answered your own question for us all. If Apple made a Tesla CLONE, why would anyone care about it? I still expect Apple to enter the car market with an actual car but not if they only plan to copy designs from others. Besides their car OS software, which I expect to outpace others in terms of autonomous driving, ridesharing and safety, I expect Apple to have the best looking and/or best designed car in the entire market.
[doublepost=1492273653][/doublepost]
I think it's only by necessity. MS is still rebuilding their brand and entire company focus. They are making big bets that need to pay off now. Apple and Google don't have that urgency so they are making big bets that need to pay off in 10 years. Perhaps Apple will become the MS of 2010 in 10 years time but they are not that now.
[doublepost=1492274103][/doublepost]
I think your theory is sound but you also have to look at the entrenched auto industry. Their legacy is part of their problem because they are so reliant on fossil fuels and the politics around that. Look at their decades of failure to produce a cheap and reliable electric car. It feels like Tesla came in overnight and one upped the entire auto industry. Now we know it took Tesla a decade to innovate to where they are today but we also know that the auto industry wouldn't be where they are today if Tesla didn't give them all a kick in the pants.

Seems like the electricity needed to charge teslas batteries come from fossil fuels, coal or nuclear. Or in Iceland geothermal springs.

 

[DevNull0]

But yes, we are only talking about electric cars. Tesla is about to release a $40k electric car that is going to be very very high performing. Not really much point in talking about anything else on a long term basis. And any electricity savings in performance of that car does two things, it extends the range and lowers the size of the necessary battery. Lowing the size of the batter reduces weight, which extends the range, improves performance, and saves money. So you can see the savings compound very quickly. However, like you say, the CPU isn't likely relevant.

Okay, let's talk electric cars then. That Tesla model 3 you're talking about is going to have a 75kWh battery pack giving it a 300 mile range. Assuming again 55 watts for the top end Intel CPU, a 75kWh battery pack will power that CPU for 2 months.

Simple enough arithmetic (75,000 / 300) tells you that 250Wh = 1 mile. 50Wh ~= 1000 feet. So the power required to propel the car 1000 feet will power the i7-7700 CPU for an hour.

 

[TallManNY]

Okay, let's talk electric cars then. That Tesla model 3 you're talking about is going to have a 75kWh battery pack giving it a 300 mile range. Assuming again 55 watts for the top end Intel CPU, a 75kWh battery pack will power that CPU for 2 months.

Simple enough arithmetic (75,000 / 300) tells you that 250Wh = 1 mile. 50Wh ~= 1000 feet. So the power required to propel the car 1000 feet will power the i7-7700 CPU for an hour.

Thanks. I was off on the order of magnitude of computing power versus the necessary mechanical power. The only way the CPU becomes relevant is if the computations for self driving necessitates multiple (as in dozens) of CPU cores all running full out. But that seems like more processing power than necessary. Of course we don't know yet what is necessary because we don't have successful self driving cars. And the prototypes don't seem to be heading toward the level of processing power where the electricity draw becomes meaningful. Thanks for your post.

 

[alecgold]

Here's the point, software will never be 100% accurate in self driving cars, there could be a 100% safe system if all moving things have accurate GPS (=accurate up to a few inches) and communicate with each other and take action if needed.
But, this can't be done, you can't stick GPS in Humans and animals.

Meet Galileo, 1meter unencrypted, 1cm encrypted.
Non-Galileo-braclet wearing animals and nog smartphone using humans will become really rare....
Joking aside, Galileo, super accurate maps in combination with UHD Lidar and machine learning is able to do great things in a really short timeframe, just ask George Hotz who has just a limited budget and resources iirc.

Already assisted driving and self driving cars bring down the number of accidents per 1000miles significant. So even with this alpha software and technology it is outperforming humans on several subjects. on highways and motorways....
Now the hard part are inner cities especially like Amsterdam with all the pedestrians, bicycles, or small English rural towns with winding roads where you can't look around the corner.

 

[sos47]

i am sure, i am driving my bmw for the next 20 or 30 years. i dont care about autonomous driving.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

It does not matter if the self driving cars are 100 times safer. First death is a lawsuit for $ 100 million and the end of the program, followed by a crying jury, picture of the death, and posters calling Apple a killer. That is the way it is, we trust what we trust. Better to create a train like track that is free, paid by taxes, where all can ride like in DisneyLand. And no need for super computers on the approved track.

The first death was last year. If a company spent a billion on this vision of the future but somehow lacked the dedication to stick with it past the first lawsuit, we'd still be getting around in horse-drawn carriages. Car companies get sued hundreds, sometimes thousands of times a day. Technological innovation marches on, even when hamstrung by shortsighted ninnies for a century.

Judging by the human animals dismal, utterly catastrophic track record at operating automobiles, I'd never trust a car operated by one of those either. As any cyclist or pedestrian commuter will tell you, putting trust in cars in traffic is a fatal mistake.

We do need a track though. An on-ramp your car can drive onto, be mag-lev lifted off the surface, accelerated up to 500mph, induction charging your vehicle the entire way, precisely routed through traffic inches from other cars at speed, to your destinations nearest off-ramp, where it dismounts and exists the off-ramp, heads out under its own power with a full charge ready to take you wherever you pilot it. The system we would build if starting over on a new planet. Until then, enjoy an endless series of half-measures and band-aids.

 

[itguy06]

lol not. I would guess you don't regularly use Gmaps/Waze.

I do. Neither is better than the other IMHO in the quality of routing once you have an address. Getting an address is tougher in Apple Maps as it sometimes just misses the mark. Gaps/Waze is better in answering "nearest xxx"

 

[springsup]

CC Chris Lattner

 

[StevieD100]

Seems like the electricity needed to charge teslas batteries come from fossil fuels, coal or nuclear. Or in Iceland geothermal springs.

Not always true. What about Wind, Solar and Hydro?
PArts of the world are already getting more than 20% of their power from non fossil fuel sources.
I have a PV system and it charges my car. No Fossil Fuel generated electricity needed.

 

[pdaholic]

Yep.



Nope.

If it's Apple being sued, it will be the car's fault, the passenger's fault, the road's fault, the weather's fault, somehow Samsung will get some blame, something about using cheap Chinese chargers, and a good dose of "the laws should be changed so that relatives of people killed in these can't ever be allowed to sue Apple." After all, how do we know it wasn't the tire's fault, or the steering controls, the other driver's fault, aliens, etc?

"You're self-driving it wrong!"

 

[I7guy]

Not always true. What about Wind, Solar and Hydro?
PArts of the world are already getting more than 20% of their power from non fossil fuel sources.
I have a PV system and it charges my car. No Fossil Fuel generated electricity needed.

In NYC you have con-ed and NJ has the nuclear power plant in Lacey twp. Point is we're are not there by a long shot to 100% renewable electric for the world, so for most of us charging our cars requires an environmentally unfriendly resource.

 

[imicca]

This gets too old, Maps improved so much that it's on par with others.

For Main cities/capitals, yes
For rural areas or countryside, nope. Maybe US but nothing close to being Google Maps in Asia and Europe

 

[DevNull0]

In NYC you have con-ed and NJ has the nuclear power plant in Lacey twp. Point is we're are not there by a long shot to 100% renewable electric for the world, so for most of us charging our cars requires an environmentally unfriendly resource.

Not sure how you equate atomic plant away from the city charging an electric battery and millions of internal combustion engines in a few dozen square miles but enjoy poisoning yourself.

I just wish you wouldn't use your stupidity to make millions of others to continue to breathe poison.

 

[I7guy]

Not sure how you equate atomic plant away from the city charging an electric battery and millions of internal combustion engines in a few dozen square miles but enjoy poisoning yourself.

I just wish you wouldn't use your stupidity to make millions of others to continue to breathe poison.

On the same note I wish you electric car owners wouldn't poison our environment and landfill with chemicals from the battery manufacture and disposal. What's even worse is claiming charging an electric car is completely environmentally friendly, which it's not especially if you live in an area which gets its power from coal, fossil fuels or nuclear reactors.

 

[jerryk]

i am sure, i am driving my bmw for the next 20 or 30 years. i dont care about autonomous driving.

Not your current BMW. As some who has owned a lot of BMWs you want to trade them in just before the warranty runs out. Planning on getting rid of my 2016 in 2018.

 

[truettray]

I know it's just a mock-up, but every time I see this Apple steering wheel graphic I cringe.

 

[Bart Kela]

Seems like the electricity needed to charge teslas batteries come from fossil fuels, coal or nuclear. Or in Iceland geothermal springs.

Depends on where you are and where you plug in.

Over the years, an increasing percentage of California's power comes from renewable sources. Even if you plug your electric vehicle with a cable in your California garage, you can't say that all of the juice comes from fossil fuels, coal or nuclear. And every year, the percentage of such drops.

For sure, if you a driving a gas-powered automobile, the percentage stays the same.

That's not the case with electric vehicles (or using any device powered by electricity). That includes your cellphone, your television, your refrigerator and your computer.

Just something to think about.
[doublepost=1492301123][/doublepost]

PArts of the world are already getting more than 20% of their power from non fossil fuel sources.
I have a PV system and it charges my car. No Fossil Fuel generated electricity needed.

Correct. Germany is generating enough power from renewable resources to supply all of its households/residential needs. Of course, industrial demands are far greater than consumer requirements, but it just goes to show you that progress is being made, and better in some places than others.

For sure, the USA is not the leader in sourcing renewable power.

 

[DevNull0]

On the same note I wish you electric car owners wouldn't poison our environment and landfill with chemicals from the battery manufacture and disposal. What's even worse is claiming charging an electric car is completely environmentally friendly, which it's not especially if you live in an area which gets its power from coal, fossil fuels or nuclear reactors.

Last time I checked, you gassers were polluting the air outside my front door. Landfills are a long way away. Environment is important, but public health is a major issue too.

 

[Abazigal]

Apple maps is a bogey on a par 3 and Google is a hole in one on a par 5.

Maps gets me to where I need to go. That's good enough for me to not have google maps installed on my iPhone as a backup option.

 

[a0me]

This gets too old, Maps improved so much that it's on par with others.

Maybe that's the case where you live, but this is clearly still not the case in at least a few major countries.
Besides the accuracy of the map itself -which to be fair has approved significantly compared to what it was a few years ago- public transit data is still behind Google and other competitors, and the search function is still mostly a joke. Obviously YMMV but searching for a KFC in Tokyo (Japan) with Apple Maps will redirect you to a map of the state of Kentucky while Google Maps will show you the nearest KFC.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Maps gets me to where I need to go. That's good enough for me to not have google maps installed on my iPhone as a backup option.

Of course it's good enough for you.

 

[Abazigal]

Of course it's good enough for you.

Why else would I use it if it weren't?

 

[developer13245]

Will Bob Mansfield please report back to the Mac Pro design department!
[doublepost=1492313795][/doublepost]If Apple was using black '68 Chargers and WWDC was still in downtown SFO, I would resume attending WWDC:

(parking my '68 Mustang downtown would be a pain in the a$$)