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Apple Working Toward Fully Autonomous Car With No Steering Wheel or Pedals, Aiming to Launch in 2025
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His right hand is resting on, what? Even the Jetson's creators couldn't imagine a totally autonomous vehicle.
Um, how do we stop this thing? IT'S GOING OVER THE EDGE!!! Well, you said the 'quickest way'... Yeah, hard sell...
And the wheels still have no brakes. (Okay, an attempt at humor. The Mac Pro wheels' don't have brakes either)
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
OK, but nearly all of us have been trusting those apparently less-challenged software "brains" to do that for what- 30+ years now?
The point is that I wouldn't be so quick to think that machines could not be made to drive a car pretty well. We seem to only imagine machines ramming walls and killing all inside immediately. For every ounce of "half empty" pessimism, we might want to try to apply an ounce of optimism. "If man was meant to fly, he would have wings", "the horseless carriage will never work", etc. History is packed with doubters about every significant advancement. And then what was so heavily doubted becomes commonplace "normal."
In my own case, step back 10 years and I definitely would not under any circumstance opt to hop into some strangers car over hopping in some stranger's taxi. Now I can almost say "what's a taxi?" What changed? Back then all the strangers were "most wanted" killers & thieves but now they are "gig workers" offering a ride for less cost than traditional taxi services.
I'm skeptical about the timing but I think the destination is 100% certain. We will eventually ride from here to there without having to actively drive... just as we fly from here to there without having to flap our wings... or from here to there on trains/monorails/bus without having to be the conductor/driver. In my experience, when others drive, it's a better trip. I can get more things done in that otherwise-nearly-wasted time... or I can watch some entertainment or interact more with the fam. Imagine the long-long drives with stretches of nothing-to-see where you could simply sleep through it as some of us do on long flights.
This will be that on a individual/family unit level. Seems like a GREAT idea to me... through probably not happening in 2025.
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Most of which was resolved immediately, wasn't an actual issue (more media hype) or corrected in later versions.
I will gladly take fully automated cars as opposed to MANY people I share the road with. Drivers are increasingly becoming more erratic, drive faster, have more powerful cars than they can handle, and fail to follow basic traffic laws more and more.
Sadly automated / self driving cars will be out of reach for many for quite some time, but the change is welcome!
Going by the quality of Siri, I'd say especially Apple isn't that good.
If Steve Jobs was still around, I'd give them a decent chance of pulling this off. Without him, I feel like this is little Timmy's desperate attempt to show the world that he is a visionary leader too. And nope, no he is not, he is merely a bean counter, who excels at finding the profit margins.
PS - keep in mind that the M1/Pro/Max/Duo/Quadra are all still Steve. They are all simply beefed up versions of the A-series chips. And the idea was already floated when Steve was still around, but put off since Intel were still pumping out good chips back then. It's only the last few years that Intel has really dropped the ball, and they took the plunge on the M1 out of frustration.
I would hardly call an autopilot a brain. It has capabilities that humans do not, but it's still just a box, monitoring the sensors it has at its disposal, and trying to follow simple commands, within its operating envelope/capabilities. There have been many accidents where pilots have over relied on those 'boxes', and crashed, killing real people.
I was shocked when both the AOPA and FAA were urging pilots to 'hand fly' their planes more often.
Plans trip to Vegas. Wakes up in Denver. Damn it, Siri.
"Designed for California" ? I would love to see any autonomous car on Englands single track country roads when another car comes the opposite way.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
OK then, I will hardly call the software to do the so-simple-drunk-teenagers-can-do-it (driving a car) a brain either. It's just some hardware and some software, monitoring sensors, possibly looking through "eyes" that can see what human eyes cannot (infrared, long distance), listening with "ears" to hear things that human ears cannot, reacting faster than human reflexes can and reacting with logic identified as best option vs. what any given human may do.
There are DAILY accidents with human drivers that have nothing to do the hardware or software built into what they are driving- just dumb decisions made by humans or humans trying to react best they can in a situation they've never encountered before and not making the best decision for that situation.
I simply have more optimism about this possibility than many seem to have in this thread. I don't view driving as that complicated. Complete idiots can successfully do it every day... under the influence of who knows what... in great emotional turmoil... completely exhausted on too little sleep... etc. I bet some great software & hardware can do the job of chauffeur better than a human... maybe not in 2025... but I think it's only a matter of time. Why? There's a lot of money in it.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Better Siri, 2025 edition: Las Vegas, New Mexico!
Or perhaps Lou Bega's place "Mambo No. 5"
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Maybe you put on your VR goggles and virtually race each other in ANY car with iPhone as steering wheel. That way when one or both of you crash, you are only virtually dead and there are no insurance claims or car repairs to be made. Virtually dead you can then see that actual you has now arrived at Starbucks of the theater etc and go in and enjoy the coffee or show. When that's over, challenge someone else to a race as you ride home... potentially virtually die and total the supercar but then have real you get home in one piece and no insurance claims.
Else, if racing is key to selling cars, I'm sure there will be steering wheel and pedals dongles. This is Apple after all- a company who can introduce a $5,000 monitor and then pitch the stand for $1,000 more. Imagine the price of that retro brake and gas pedal dongle... and steering wheel dongles in 5 magical colors.
That's called the Nirvana Fallacy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_fallacy
"It'll never be perfect so why bother trying?".
Funny how the most vocal opponents of self driving/autonomous vehicles are drivers - usually ones that wildly overestimate their own abilities.. All the hairy moments I've had in vehicles have been the fault of the driver. Every single one. My driving instructor told me, many years ago, that "You have to drive as if everyone else on the road is trying to kill you, because they are." He was right.
It can already be seen that you are much safer in a car such as a Tesla. The data is already in: https://cleantechnica.com/2020/08/0...30000-miles-us-average-1-out-of-479000-miles/
And it will only get better the more we relieve drivers of being in *ahem* 'control' of vehicles. The lack of processing power is not an issue. Lack of processing power between a drivers ears is. Thinking that the only proper way to drive a vehicle is to have a human being at the wheel is naive, and dangerously so. The most dangerous part in any car is the nut that holds onto the steering wheel.
Well if you are middle aged person , you will live in this reality you fear sooner or later , driving the car yourself will be like having a gasoline engine , only for fun and only on certain roads/areas , the world had enough idiots killing other ppl behind the wheel not to mention the tech is driven by the richest companies in the word , it’s coming , just need to pick your brand.
Not everyone lives or desires to live in a city. Your future sounds like a dystopia.
I hope we are missing something because from this rumour Apple look totally incompetent and out of their minds.
Who wants to enjoy driving Apple car without pedals and steering wheel? That's more like riding in a bus...
How does they train AI till 2025 with maybe some few prototypes in the streets? :-O Do they have some secret plan? Like buying Google Maps or something? :-D
What is this awesome chip which will be running hot and need sophisticated cooling?? Water cooling? Cooling like a battery? Are they really think THIS IS IT when Tesla built AI supercomputer cloud which can learn from every car? Am I missing SOMETHING? :-O
If this is all true I am worried this could be biggest Apple fail ever.
Who wants to enjoy driving Apple car without pedals and steering wheel? That's more like riding in a bus...
How does they train AI till 2025 with maybe some few prototypes in the streets? :-O Do they have some secret plan? Like buying Google Maps or something? :-D
What is this awesome chip which will be running hot and need sophisticated cooling?? Water cooling? Cooling like a battery? Are they really think THIS IS IT when Tesla built AI supercomputer cloud which can learn from every car? Am I missing SOMETHING? :-O
If this is all true I am worried this could be biggest Apple fail ever.
