[doublepost=1463194208][/doublepost]Unless I've misunderstood the obvious trends, once we got driverless cars, no one will bother owning their own car to worry about. Driverless vehicles operated by the Ubers and Didi Chuting's of the world will continuously pick up and deliver customer after customer for reasonable prices. They will own and operate all of the vehicles. So AppleCar + Didi Chuxing = Apple's entry into this absolutely huge segment of the near-future economy.From that description, I pictured this as the (original Total Recall) Johnny Cab Taxi on Mars...
Remember that? And if you watch the clip and mentally change the voice to Siri...
...well, I'll just humbly say: relative to Project Titan, I think I've "cracked it".
And we all might get to play Ahhhhnold in about 2021 or so!
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple's $1 Billion Investment in Didi Chuxing Aligned With Electric Vehicle Plans
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
You're right that. They should be very afraid to do anything new. That $200 billion in cash not doing anything that pisses off Wall Street so much? Yeah, just don't re-invest that into growth opportunities. Just keep doing the same thing and cling tightly to the $200 billion in cash just sitting there.
A few innovative features of Didi Chuxing Apple ride share cars.
Airbags replaced by suicide nets.
Rides feature complimentary hot dogs made out of real dogs.
Cars run over students on rides near Tiananmen Square.
Free in car censored Wi-Fi.
An autographed photo of the Chinese Premiere shaking hands with Hillary Clinton.
GPS features locations of thousand of factories with tens of millions of jobs Americans should be doing.
Airbags replaced by suicide nets.
Rides feature complimentary hot dogs made out of real dogs.
Cars run over students on rides near Tiananmen Square.
Free in car censored Wi-Fi.
An autographed photo of the Chinese Premiere shaking hands with Hillary Clinton.
GPS features locations of thousand of factories with tens of millions of jobs Americans should be doing.
Last edited:
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
If somehow you read my post as some kind of Apple attack, that was not the objective. Note the
.I was just having fun at the article making me think of the combination of an Apple Car rumor + a Chinese Taxi/transport data company (think Uber or taxi-like service data) + Siri confusion at times. Put all that together (in my head anyway) and you get Johnny Cab from the original Total Recall movie. Again, watch the clip and sub in Siri's voice for Johnny's.
And again, all
If you crave serious: I agree- huge opportunity for Apple. Apple can make such a car with an Apple premium built in and still have a lifetime usage cost fall lower than it would when comparing driverless non-paychecks to paying drivers a salary. Perhaps the whole Apple Car rumor is entirely about a commercial vehicle along these lines rather than something to compete for space in our consumer garages? How many taxis and similar are there in the world? All of them have paid drivers. How much are they paid? Should be huge dollars.
And, if so, maybe Apple should lease the cars instead of sell them so they can collect an annual fee instead of a one-time fee- cheaper than the salary involved in the "as is" taxi-ing business but far more profitable than selling the car once and then hoping all the taxi, etc companies want to buy a "thinner" Apple Car 2 next year.
Ooops, again slipped into a joke.What's the big gripe about electric cars. Often, range limitations. We're afraid to replace our gas cars just in case we want to drive 1000 miles in a day (which of course, we do maybe once or twice in the entire life of a car at most... but don't let that stop a good excuse). However, an electric car functioning as a taxi service would be like a Roomba vacuum cleaner. When the battery gets low, it just heads back to it's charging station while another charged car picks right up where it left off, so riders don't even notice.
The ONE concern I have for any application of "driverless" is the almost certain dependency on Apple Maps data. While I know 10 guys can always jump into any conversation and claim Apple Maps are perfect in every way, I still commonly get taken to the wrong place by it when I choose to trust it instead of using the Google Maps app. I'm doubting an Apple Car is going to allow a "use google maps" for Car navigation. So, "glass half full?": apparently Apple is spending that huge R&D money on making dramatic accuracy improvements to Maps. Else "glass half empty": be ready for anything when you take a Johnny, er Apple Cab.
Last edited:
...and in other news China announces it's removal of the suspension of iBooks & iTunes Movies.
I've seen acquisitions and investments before from big tech companies which were nothing other than legitimised palm greasing. Let's hope that $1B is enough for now.
I've seen acquisitions and investments before from big tech companies which were nothing other than legitimised palm greasing. Let's hope that $1B is enough for now.
As is often said, "history is due to repeat itself". (Somewhere Scott Forstall is plotting his return...)
[doublepost=1463206693][/doublepost]I think I've heard of these new fangled self-driving taxis before.
Going down year over year?
That was the first decline EVER for iPhone and the first for Mac in years.
But overall I agree with your point, Apple should concentrate on what has made them great - high quality hardware with stable, easy to use software and innovative USEFUL!!! ideas.
Elsewhere on macrumors....
Apple Confirms Music Deletion Glitch, Says Fix Incoming in Future iTunes Update
Its going to be a hoot seeng all those unintentional software "features" being discovered by unsuspecting early adopters on our roads. Apple support rep....."no Sir, the car is meant to always drive to a destination via an Apple store and yes the occassional sudden emergency stop smperfectly normal evn at 70mph on a clear road with no traffic nearby". By the way you can look foward to an exciting improvement to the user interface font in the next software release"
Apple Confirms Music Deletion Glitch, Says Fix Incoming in Future iTunes Update
Its going to be a hoot seeng all those unintentional software "features" being discovered by unsuspecting early adopters on our roads. Apple support rep....."no Sir, the car is meant to always drive to a destination via an Apple store and yes the occassional sudden emergency stop smperfectly normal evn at 70mph on a clear road with no traffic nearby". By the way you can look foward to an exciting improvement to the user interface font in the next software release"
The BIGGEST problem with driverless cars going mainstream is that not everyone is going to be able to afford them and they have to go through federal regulations and approval for that. Secondly, if you think everyone is going to want an driverless Apple Car, you're mistaken.
I do NOT want an Apple Car to be driverless. Why?
Simple answer: COPS.
Do you think the police is going to want driverless cars in their patrols? They wouldn't be this stupid to because in order to PULL someone off the road, they have to go manual at full speed at the wheel.
Driverless cars cannot go full speed and are programmed to stay within the speed limit, and if I'm not mistaken, could be overridden remotely. Even if the car detects a police car, chances are it'll be programmed instantly to pull over to the right to let it pass or is being targeted to pull over. So, in other words, the public masses go driverless but have no control over speed but the law enforcement stays mechanical.
Apple is making a huge mistake here. The Apple Car is nothing but a vanity project. It's not meant to 'change the world with our products', like Timmy says.
The only way for the car to be 'driverless' would have to be on over-ride mode for emergencies when the driver is too tired or is a youth, and is moving at a fixed speed rate. Think about the parental controls of having a child being ferried to and about from home to school and back.
I highly suspect Project Titan is designed to be an auto service, NOT for sale at car dealerships for the masses. But even if it was for sale, it will be priced very highly like the gold Apple Watch in an in-accessible manner with a limited market. Tesla is far ahead of Apple and Tim can't keep up with Elon's vision. Even Alphabet/Google is already making inroads with their car.
Tim's biggest mistake is playing like a 'coy girl' keeping secrets about a car when it's so blatantly obvious whereas Google and Tesla aren't hiding their car projects. This car project is the one thing he should be upfront about. The company is treating their car like a gadget product that needs to be secretly covered up and revealed later on.
There is one entity they cannot keep it a secret from and that is the government because they have certain regulations to follow and provide the details on how the vehicle is going to operate.
Classic example. The Apple Watch which some parts of the sensors didn't make it through the FCC in time and I suspect, they were trying to keep a lid on it until unveiling at the last minute. They blew off five years on an Apple Watch and still have not solved the battery problem whereas a Pebble Steel lasts 10 days. TEN. DAYS.
I think Apple is wasting time and money on Project Titan and needs to scale back to focus on better things.
Dave's busy chillin...
Work?
Surely you jest. Having just lost his Uber Driver Job, he's unemployed and bitter. But no worries, fat and happy with his entitlement income, Dave's just fine.
[doublepost=1463234014][/doublepost]
The level of intelligence, common sense and thought you are demonstrating is scaring the faithful...
A more palatable refrain to blend in here, would be to praise Apple. Something like this: Oh my, such a wonderful way to show love for China.
They killed 87 million from 49.87 and now it since slowed. The west provided the resources to help them do it.
This is well starred and it's my concern too. Tim runs the business purely as a business manager, and is running the playbook of a CEO not a tech guy.
iPhone sales are dipping - don't make a mind blowing phone, get into India and China and the sales will increase.
I am managing my projects with Telemundo (A NBC Universal network) and with 3 other clients using Google Sheets and sharing videos in Google Drive. No need to have a mac or anything, try to beat that with Safari and iWork...
Lol, getting on a high horse & refusing to do business at all with a country (despite the fact that LITERALLY every other tech company has a presence there) that is both the largest & the most populous because you don't agree with their laws is showing "intelligence, common sense, and thought"???
I'm VERY glad that nobody (of any consequence) agrees with that silly assertion.
You don't need a Mac or anything to share documents in iWork. I am collaborating on two documents at this very moment with people who don't have Macs. All they need is the private link to the document. The web interface is limited but slick. These features of iWork will probably always be under-appreciated because Apple doesn't make a big push for them, but they do work, and quite nicely for most purposes.
Ummmm... I would change the headline to Apples 1 Billion Investment in Didi Chuxing Aligned With iPhone Plans
Hmmm
[doublepost=1463281690][/doublepost]
Or you can just use a mac and use google services
That's hilarious. I know that some counter-culture millennials don't want to own anything (including cars and homes), but for the vast majority of us, we will give up our cars sometime after the NRA organizes its members to voluntarily turn in their guns.
You think new parents are going to carry all their baby supplies and car seat into an out of a ride sharing car? Do you have any idea how long it takes to install and uninstall a car seat; and when you take short cuts to do it fast you put the kid at risk from doing it wrong. How long is the car going to sit around waiting while it gets loaded and unloaded. What is the customer supposed to do at their destination when they have to walk around with their kid and 50 pounds of junk.
Most people have a usage case where they need their own car. And what about peak demand where you can't get a car? My car is sitting waiting for me right now. Do you think someone can regularly tell their boss they're late because they had to wait for a car to become available?
A lot of people take a great deal of pride in their cars, the aftermarket cosmetic upgrade market alone makes ride sharing look like a little blip. What about people who like a high-end audio system and to just go out for a joyride? There's a reason people will pay $100k+ for an audi. And there's a reason people buy a Mustang or Camero.
So no, this will not be a "huge segment of the near-future economy". It will not be a huge section of the economy until gen-x is too old to drive. And that's only if the millennials don't grow up and act like adults.
Where in this story does it say that Mac and iOS device R&D receives less money?
[doublepost=1463337599][/doublepost]
If you live in a European city of a certain size, you will see lots of people not having a car.
In Oslo, a small European city where I live, we have the following statistics:
31% of all traffic is with a car, incidentally 32% use their feet for transportation
46% of traffic to/from work is done by public transportation
21% of people do not have a driver license
32% of people do not have a car in their household
This could be little more than a glorified bribe. Apple could design something better than this in a heartbeat.
What happened to all the analysts predicting an Apple television? No sign of one yet so I reckon a car is even more far fetched.