Well I would consider automobiles as one of those things they can really impact and focus on.
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Apple's Automobile Project Said to Include Self-Driving Cars
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Well I would consider automobiles as one of those things they can really impact and focus on.
More More!!!
Apple has so much freeeeeeeekin' money, they could easily get into other tech fields, such as:
Space Flight ( or just buy into SpaceX, or buy them all outright ).
Home Security.
National Security.
Artificial electronic organs.
Flying Cars.
AI Robots.
Electronic Programmed Lawnmowers.
Etc......
Apple has so much freeeeeeeekin' money, they could easily get into other tech fields, such as:
Space Flight ( or just buy into SpaceX, or buy them all outright ).
Home Security.
National Security.
Artificial electronic organs.
Flying Cars.
AI Robots.
Electronic Programmed Lawnmowers.
Etc......
First off, I agree that it would be very hard to just up and build an automotive company. It's about as likely as Exxon would make a good smartphone. Sure they have the money, like Apple, but what do they know about it? I don't care if Apple hires 10,000 people, if they aren't named Elon Musk, they don't know how to build a car company--his achievement is crazy, and look how few he's able to build and how long it's taken.
After you bother to design the thing, you need to figure out the enormous supply/resources necessary to build said car. Then you have to build the factory (which you've designed), then you have to build up a transportation network that can ship big things like cars, build your own network of retailers, and then supply them with parts, too.
No, they aren't likely to be so stupid as to actually try to build a car.
But, self-driving is coming, and maybe Apple feels like they need to be in that game. I think you will be letting your car drive you around soon, but it will start out as optional on cars (like auto parallel parking). Google has thought this stuff out already if you believe Eric Schmidt, and they've been working with the auto makers.
Giving up our own cars for AI taxi is the future, and that's still probably 20 years away.
Lol wut. About 99.9% of accidents are caused by people making "informed decisions:"
1) Drunk driving
2) Risking a red light
3) Speeding
4) Texting
5) Talking on the phone
6) Distractions
You think any company is going to release a half-assed self-driving car? No way. It's going to be at least 5x better than a human driver if they release it.
Maybe they're not building or designing a new car, but rather the brains of the car. I can see that more than Apple actually creating a car from scratch. They could offer it, like car play, to established car manufacturers or partner up with someone down the road.
Seems like driving is in for bigger changes over the next 5-15 years than the previous century. Electric propulsion, home charging, automated operation, ride sharing. I guess if Apple is looking to make a huge investment with its $150 billion war chest, this is a great place to start.
Even if YOU are a model drive, 30 years with zero accidents. Do you really trust everyone else on the road..? Just look at the statistics.
30 years means nothing if tomorrow is the day..
(Take care by the way)
Self driving cars are better than humans. And they never get tired, drunk, distracted or complacent (even if they are a bulletproof race-driving super star, with 30 year on the track)
Show me the statistics otherwise...
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The apple car will be just as succesful as the apple television set
Honestly, I don't think they're building a vehicle. It'd be a step beyond their area of expertise, and would require they sink a goodly chunk of their bank to build up the infrastructure required to make it a widespread success...
...without any guarantee whatsoever that it'll end up being successful.
I think what they're doing is building the software and hardware required to kit other manufacturers vehicles with their technology. Apple cars won't be Apple made, rather Apple licensed. It's more in line with what they do, what the company is known for, and would put them in direct competition with Tesla, who's doing something fairly similar.
Quite agree, in my guess Apple is not aiming for the car manufacturing business, but is aiming at developing a a common integrated electronic control system taking care of all diagnostics, control, information and interfacing to electrical car systems far beyond entertainment systems. There are currently a couple of initiatives being run to make standardised systems in similar areas for military vehicles, an my guess is that Apple is aiming at a similar personal car system.
So I'll be able to watc h my iTV while sitting in my iCar. Don't count on this story yet. There's no factual substantiation to the story other than seeing somebody driving a cAr with cameras registered to Apple
Could be a mapping car. Wait and see before you get excited
Could be a mapping car. Wait and see before you get excited
the government will have to come up with something else to recoup that money.
DUI charges bring in millions, if not billions of dollars.
I can't really see anything else driving around in the future. I hate driving, in fact it's one of the things (if not the thing) I hate doing the most. Self driving cars are far more comfortable and much safer. It's already proven that they are far more reliable than humans. Even the best drivers in the world can't beat computers when it comes to precision.
I agree. Driving isn't that difficult for me and gives me something to do on my vacations.
Driving implies moral decisions and a human conscious, I don't think machines are better at that.
Wut. And loss of life doesn't cost the economy billions of dollars? You funny.
30% of all car fatalities are caused by DUI.
So, if you're driving and suddenly a child goes into the street following a ball, and on the other side there's a biker which is acting properly, and the car has to evaluate to hit the child and avoid the biker or hit the biker and avoid the child, considering the biker wears a helmet and has much more % of surviving success, who is the car hitting? And what about the insurance? Who will be guilty? Just a simple situation... And what about using them as weapons?
How many self driving cars have you ridden in? How were they more comfortable than cars you have driven yourself? I wonder what the safety record would be if there were 200+ million of them on US roads each day? Air travel is safer than auto travel, put a billion planes in the air and see if that changes a bit.
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Did Sully land the plane in the Hudson River or was it on autopilot?
I agree that, right now, in a pinch, a well trained, fully aware person will make a better life or death decision in a car - not argument there.
I'm not worried about people like you who have excellent experience and respect for the responsibility of driving. But the Tweens I see making left hand turns at busy downtown intersections all while obviously trying to do something on their phone (texting I would assume), or the 95 year old man and his wife driving 20 in a 55 because they need to get to the store...these people would be far better off in a self-driving car. For their sake, and ours.
I used to ride motorcycles everywhere. Cheap $1000 bikes that weren't flashy, but economical. I quit, not because I was a bad cyclist, but because so many people almost hit me simply because they weren't paying attention. As an unprotected motorcyclist I would much rather see a computer driven car at an intersection than that 17 year old fiddling with her phone. It is insane how many people will hear a car honk, and just go ahead and drive out into an intersection without even checking the light.
The point I'm trying to make is most of those life or death decisions you are so good at making, would never have to be made, if the small annoying details of driving were always attended too. A mom reaching back to get her toddlers sippy cup, a distracted teenager, and elderly man who just can't see...these are the main causes of fatal accidents, not to mention impaired drivers. Is software buggy? Absolutely. But people are too, and a computer is excellent at vigilantly monitoring the mundane tasks. Lane drifting, pulling out into intersections at the wrong time, fatal accidents related to these lapses in attention can easily be remedied with self driven cars, and if nobody accidentally crosses into your lane while reaching down for the coffee they spilled - you don't have to make a split second, life saving maneuver. That's just my 2 cents.