Apple Working Toward Fully Autonomous Car With No Steering Wheel or Pedals, Aiming to Launch in 2025

[brijazz]

"Owners of Car are reporting that the latest CarOS update prevents Car from making left-hand turns when it's raining outside. Apple says they're working on the problem and a fix will be released sometime in the future. In the meantime, Apple advises Car drivers to either move to sunny Cupertino where it hardly rains or to go eff themselves." - MacRumours headline circa 2026

 

[Cosmosent]

Would be a great fit for Old People !

Don't laugh, the Market is HUGE, & Silicon Valley is a great place to get it rolling !

I'd say 50% of the people who live in Silicon Valley & the Peninsula area of the Bay Area are 65+, & I'm sure Apple knows that.

For those into cars, however, nothing beats Hydraulic-assist Power Steering !

 

[Cosmosent]

They can make it but it depends on each country to decide and legislate if they can sell and use those cars. Self driving cars with controls means the car occupants can still be in control and therefore liable. Self driving cars with no controls and the people in it are basically taxi passengers.

Come to think of it, it can be business thing around the world where they can implement it as a taxi system and operate as a fleet but not so much as something for individual ownership.

I've been suggesting that to Apple for years.

They can't compete in the consumer market, but there's plenty of opportunity for them with an EV as a Service.

 

[pshifrin]

As someone who is driving Tesla's Full Self-Driving Beta... all I can say is no. I realize it's two different companies but the chances of having a car with no means to take over in unusual/unsafe situations is just unrealistic in this decade. As much as I want it to be true, there's no way, yet.

I’m also driving FSD 10.4 on a MY. It’s interesting but I trust my new MBP 14 inch more.

 

[mrscott4]

There is no way on God’s green Earth that I am ever going to drive, much less own a car with no steering wheel and no pedals. Even Apple isn’t that good. Hard pass.

Microsoft’s Steve Balmer regarding the original iPhone back in 2007…”a phone with no physical keyboard for $499?…it will never work!” ?

 

[AlumaMac]

Again, more likely , a couple years from now they will say again they are shifting the program to be something else.....

Agreed, I expect a press release within a year announcing another shuffling of the executive deck chairs in Apple's 'Car' Division.

 

[zakarhino]

I would personally never purchase a car that doesn't have a human override (steering wheel, pedals), mostly as a matter of safety but also a matter of security and assurance that I'm the person with final say.

The thing about full self driving cars is that you're not no longer the person with autonomy over how and where you travel, instead that's automatically decided by a central authority with absolutely zero recourse for you to override that if necessary (on a technical level this is kinda true already on some modern cars). Given that we've developed this country around cars the idea that long distance travel can be controlled at the level preventing your vehicle from driving is frightening (and yes, there is an obvious difference between preventing your car from moving via software vs. police roadblocks). Imagine instant over the air blacklist geofencing of certain areas because the local authorities decided they don't want people interfering with their business, limiting the places you can visit during a mandated lockdown, automated curfews, the list goes on. I fear the day some 'genius' decides to implement laws that ban human drivers from the road for """safety""" purposes.

We need to ensure we're constantly thinking about the implications of new technologies like this.

 

[filchermcurr]

This is TERRIFYING to me. We all know, through countless examples, that software and hardware and the people designing them are fallible. You're one bug, random cosmic phenomenon, or hack away from being stranded in the middle of the road at best or splattered on the side of a building at worst. (And in the fun in betweens like mowing down a group of pedestrians, t-boning another car, driving off the side of a twisty mountain road, etc.)

I can only hope that the self-driving bits are isolated from the entire world, but we know they're going to be connected to an always-on 5G network to receive updates and/or check a licensing server or something. That makes them vulnerable.

Terror aside, the user interface confuses me a bit. I assume you give it a destination. What happens when you get to the destination? Right now we get vague "your destination is on the right... somewhere..." messages, especially in "less developed" areas. There has to be a way to guide the car to the right place. Or what if you have, I dunno... to throw up or have raging explosive diarrhea or you spot a dying child on the side of the road or you spontaneously burst into flames or any other instance where you'd need to pull over? What if you want to back into your driveway because you're too lazy to walk around the car to haul groceries in? What if it's cold and you have a long rural driveway and you want to drive to the end to check your mail and then drive back to your house?! Or maybe you want to slow down to enjoy the view.

If it's relying on voice commands to accomplish any of this, well, I'm skeptical that it will work out. We've been hearing for YEARS that Siri has 'gotten better', and yet it's still miles away from being able to reliably accomplish controlling a car. Unless car Siri has been rewritten specifically for that purpose and they hired a whole new team to do it.

Maybe you have to write shortcuts for things like "pants caught on fire" that will pull over.

Not to mention the regulatory hurdles... This seems like an optimistic AirPower situation to me.

 

[zakarhino]

The more I read about this project the more I think at least one incarnation of it will be as a geofenced, city-exclusive full self driving taxi pod directly integrated into Apple Maps. Maybe the other car with pedals and self driving assistant technology is the one that can be purchased and parked at home.

 

[iamgalt]

Seriously reminds me of The jetsons!

View attachment 1913397

But if you'll notice; George Jetson has one of his hands on the wheel. Won't be able to do that in the Apple Car (assuming it actually gets through the endless bureaucracy of multiple governments).

 

[wigby]

There is no way on God’s green Earth that I am ever going to drive, much less own a car with no steering wheel and no pedals. Even Apple isn’t that good. Hard pass.

No one is going to drive a car with no steering wheel or pedals. That's the point. But you have presumably ridden in taxis and maybe also ridden in driverless transports like monorails too. My question to you is do you just enjoy the experience of driving that much or do you just not trust AI to safely deliver you to your destination?

 

[dannyyankou]

I don't like this. I think human intervention is important in case something goes wrong.

 

[ghanwani]

Good for a stock pump. Has a lower probability of making it to market than AirPower.

 

[wigby]

oh sure they can get it done by 2025. They have the technology.
But can they get it mass produced, on the road, not to mention regulated and approved by the governments by 2025?
I’m going to say no.
I don’t see a universe where the US government completely approves a driverless, wheel less and petalless vehicle in the next three-four years.

Agreed but Apple is known to enter markets later than most but once they have arrived, iterate consistently and aggressively to eventually win over billions of customers. There is no reason to believe they won't first introduce an Apple EV with some semi-autonomous features and then 3-5 years later go full AI and then 5-10 years later completely remove all manual driving capabilities.

Like 99% of all rumors, there are some truths here but obviously the timeline is way off.

 

[shplock]

This is going to be awesome!

It will be so great to go on long car trips and not have to stay awake to pay attention to the road

I currently have Apple CarPlay in my car now and use it all the time. I’m sure Apple will do a fantastic job with the technology in their future self driving car! Can’t wait to buy one!

I am sorry to say this but it will not happen. Tesla are way to0 far ahead and Apple have made far too many mistakes.

 

[shplock]

oh sure they can get it done by 2025. They have the technology.
But can they get it mass produced, on the road, not to mention regulated and approved by the governments by 2025?
I’m going to say no.
I don’t see a universe where the US government completely approves a driverless, wheel less and petalless vehicle in the next three-four years.

I love Apple but they do not have the technology whatsoever!
Any form of FSD takes masses and makes of data which only Tesla has and Apple does not.

 

[coolfactor]

"Do not start or unplug your car while this software update is in progress. Time remaining: 3 days"

 

[Havoc035]

Designing is one thing.
Getting it manufactured and approved on the road another… not buying the timeline

I think even finishing the design will be challenging with that timeline. Doing fully autonomous well is hard.

 

[Mr. Dee]

This is likely gonna be my first car, but I will wait until Rev 4. Let the early adopters find the bugs and crashes.

 

[anshuvorty]

Designing is one thing.
Getting it manufactured and approved on the road another… not buying the timeline

This timeline....it's Elon-esque in nature...

 

[coolfactor]

I understand getting me from point A to point B in the general sense. But what if I need to back up 6 feet at a certain angle so I can get my car in position to pick up a piece of furniture or something? They must make it so that some type of manual control is possible, no? I've always wondered about this.

You're imagining it wrong.

The car will hover. You'll be able to move it with your finger.

 

[djgamble]

There is no way on God’s green Earth that I am ever going to drive, much less own a car with no steering wheel and no pedals. Even Apple isn’t that good. Hard pass.

Agreed mate. Even if it's really really good at automated driving, what's it gonna do when I visit my uncle's farm? (Lotsa windy dirt roads then navigating a farm block with pretty much no roads).

Anyhow, I ride my bike to the office these days (when I'm there) so I don't need a commuter. Our car doesn't get all that much usage...

 

[macpro2000]

It's not gonna happen.

 

[H2SO4]

There is no way on God’s green Earth that I am ever going to drive, much less own a car with no steering wheel and no pedals. Even Apple isn’t that good. Hard pass.

I gotta say, these seem like very ambitious plans for any company to have in the land of lawsuits.

 

[masterleep]

Could Apple please make a Siri that doesn't make me want to punch my fist through the screen before worrying about self driving cars?