Jony Ive Once Insisted on Apple Car Without a Steering Wheel

[Cosmosent]

RE: "including one made out of wood and leather that lacked a steering wheel at Ive's insistence."

I've lost ALL respect for the Man !

He clearly never owned a Porsche OR BMW sports sedan with Hydraulic-assist power steering !

 

[travelsheep]

Other big inventions by Jony Ive:

• A house without a door
• Bicycle tires without valves
• A toothbrush without a handle

 

[Zdigital2015]

And never a truer instance of of the old axiom "Don't try to reinvent the wheel!" has ever been uttered in the Known Universe since the Dawn of Time, into to the Here After and To Infinity and Beyond.

 

[EvilEvil]

Other big inventions by Jony Ive:

• A house without a door
• Bicycle tires without valves
• A toothbrush without a handle

Never forget charging a mouse from below:

 

[w5jck]

A car without a steering wheel...what a moron. Deport him back to England and let him screw up the British car industry even more than it already is. Actually I misspoke. I should have said German-owned-and-run-British car industry!

[SARCASM]Hey, let us build a car with a wooden frame in one of the wettest climates on the planet. That should work, right?[/SARCASM]

The guy has always been a moron and a dreamer trying to design things for form without much regard for function. Good riddance! Apple should have fired him decades ago rather than let him stick around and leave on his own.

 

[wigby]

Yes I’m sure he demanded that. Good god where do people come up with this nonsense? This headline is like something you’d see at the Verge to generate clicks.

Assuming we're talking about a self driving vehicle, demanding no steering wheel is no different than demanding no mouse support in iOS or no touch screen on a laptop or desktop.

Like landline phones and non-touch screen computing, we are already quickly approaching a generation of passengers that will have no idea what to do with a steering wheel anyway.

 

[w5jck]

If it had not steering wheel you would probably be able to add one externally using a dongle.

LOL! Yes, but it would be an Apple proprietary port and the dongle would cost an additional $10,000 and only be available through the Apple store!

 

[wigby]

A car without a steering wheel...what a moron. Deport him back to England and let him screw up the British car industry even more than it already is. Actually I misspoke. I should have said German-owned-and-run-British car industry!

[SARCASM]Hey, let us build a car with a wooden frame in one of the wettest climates on the planet. That should work, right?[/SARCASM]

The guy has always been a moron and a dreamer trying to design things for form without much regard for function. Good riddance! Apple should have fired him decades ago rather than let him stick around and leave on his own.

You really don't understand how design works at all. Designers (dreamers) are the reason why we have Apple and don't have giant, beige boxes on every desktop.
[doublepost=1561735310][/doublepost]

A crashed car has more consequences to cope with than a replaced butterfly keyboard or bend iPad.

Im not opposed to progress, but sometimes not sure that all people involved at Apple, Google or Tesla are aware of their responsibility.

Now look at it the other way. Cars are already mostly computer controlled and will be 100% computer controlled in the near future. Who do you want the designer of that OS to be? Google? Uber? Apple?

Based on OS stability alone, I'd choose Apple over any other companies in the autonomous car game.

 

[SRLMJ23]

I've been working with technology for 30+ years and all I can say is it'll be a cold day in hell before I trust a car to drive on its own to the point that it doesn't need a steering wheel.

I've anticipated and avoided accidents that I'm 99% sure a computer wouldn't have. Sometimes you just get a "feeling" about another car on the road, and that "feeling" ends up being right more often than not.

"That guy looks like he's going to dive into my lane. Better slow down."

(he dives into my lane)

Self-driving cars, like flying cars, are a technology that sounds nice at first, but then you realize that the real world is way more complicated than The Jetsons. (Heck, in the Jetsons they still drove their flying cars!)

Probably the best post I have read so far, because it is so true.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

A car without a steering wheel...what a moron. Deport him back to England and let him screw up the British car industry even more than it already is. Actually I misspoke. I should have said German-owned-and-run-British car industry!

[SARCASM]Hey, let us build a car with a wooden frame in one of the wettest climates on the planet. That should work, right?[/SARCASM]

The guy has always been a moron and a dreamer trying to design things for form without much regard for function. Good riddance! Apple should have fired him decades ago rather than let him stick around and leave on his own.

"Morgan cars are unusual because wood has been used in their construction for a century, and is still used in the 21st century for framing the body shell." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Motor_Company

 

[Iphtashu Fitz]

Just use an iPad to steer it pure genius.

Hey, it worked for James Bond...

 

[Blackwell]

Speaking of diverse designs like automobiles, trendy fashions, maybe even an Apple powered coffee cup. How about a USB C port in a coffin? No end to ideas eh? Hey Amazon how much weight can be saved by filling air bags with helium? I could go on forever.

 

[jlc1978]

[SARCASM]Hey, let us build a car with a wooden frame in one of the wettest climates on the planet. That should work, right?[/SARCASM]

You could call it ein guten Morgan.

 

[Jerus]

People here just hate that man so much. If you're designing a car driven by voice control, why would it have a steering wheel? So you can sit there and pretend that you're driving it?

Im not saying it's a great idea to have a voice controlled car ( I hate assistants like Siri, Alexa etc), but I do say that if you made one, to put a physical steering wheel just in it would just be silly.

 

[Timemaster]

Never forget charging a mouse from below:

Ah another one of those great design failures of Apple where they choose form over function. Yes it looks SLIGHTLY prettier with it on the bottom where you can not see it but makes the mouse useless while charging. It would be so much better if it was on the top of the mouse so I could at least still use it while charging as lets admit it we all will at some point forget to charge our mouse until we need it.
(Another great example from the pass is the old hockey puck mice)

To me this car without a steering wheel is yet another form over function failure.
[doublepost=1561737638][/doublepost]

People here just hate that man so much. If you're designing a car driven by voice control, why would it have a steering wheel? So you can sit there and pretend that you're driving it?

Im not saying it's a great idea to have a voice controlled car ( I hate assistants like Siri, Alexa etc), but I do say that if you made one, to put a physical steering wheel just in it would just be silly.

You are right you will rarely need it but the underlining issue is there WILL BE times you need the manual controls and that when you need the steering wheel. That or a joystick of some type just to control the car but even then there are limitations.
Car steering wheel design allows for much accurate control in fine movements than what a joystick would offer in a few inches of movement.

 

[Glockworkorange]

Of course he didn’t want a steering wheel.

This right here is part of the reason Ive left unchecked by Jobs is problematic.

Using Siri of all things for steering a piece of heavy machinery. Get the F out.
[doublepost=1561737758][/doublepost]

Ah another one of those great design failures of Apple where they choose form over function. Yes it looks SLIGHTLY prettier with it on the bottom where you can not see it but makes the mouse useless while charging. It would be so much better if it was on the top of the mouse so I could at least still use it while charging as lets admit it we all will at some point forget to charge our mouse until we need it.
(Another great example from the pass is the old hockey puck mice)

To me this car without a steering wheel is yet another form over function failure.
[doublepost=1561737638][/doublepost]

You are right you will rarely need it but the underlining issue is there WILL BE times you need the manual controls and that when you need the steering wheel. That or a joystick of some type just to control the car.

I love the Magic Mouse 2. I need charge it for maybe 20 minutes once a month.

Maybe I’m an outlier, but this “problem” has never been an issue for me.
[doublepost=1561737846][/doublepost]

People here just hate that man so much. If you're designing a car driven by voice control, why would it have a steering wheel? So you can sit there and pretend that you're driving it?

Im not saying it's a great idea to have a voice controlled car ( I hate assistants like Siri, Alexa etc), but I do say that if you made one, to put a physical steering wheel just in it would just be silly.

For emergencies, even if the voice control works, YOU NEED A WAY TO MANUALLY CONTROL HEAVY MACHINERY THAT CAN KILL PEOPLE.

 

[nexusrule]

I don't think Jony is going to have any involvement with Apple. That's just a Wall Street pacifier.

He will probably keep working for Apple on architectural projects and other ancillary stuff that’s not hardware, I think his decisions is due to be tired of designing hardware, if he wasn’t he wouldn’t have left, it’s not like there is a better place to realize it’s vision than Apple.

 

[blacktape242]

glad it didnt happen, some of us love to grip that wheel and drive like a bat outta hell.
[doublepost=1561738999][/doublepost]

Never forget charging a mouse from below:

that was the dumbest thing ever.

 

[TonyC28]

Yes I’m sure he demanded that. Good god where do people come up with this nonsense? This headline is like something you’d see at the Verge to generate clicks.

According to the article the headline is based on information in the linked "The Information" article. I'm blocked by the paywall, but I assume it's in there or yes, this is a poor headline.

 

[sinsin07]

"Morgan cars are unusual because wood has been used in their construction for a century, and is still used in the 21st century for framing the body shell." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Motor_Company

Looks pretty sturdy, with 'dem smoking brakes.
June 21 2019: 2018 Morgan Plus 4 crahes into SUV on A5 in Shrewsbury

 

[PJL500]

Jony had a lot of good ideas.. but having Siri control a car isn't one of them...

The steering wheel is going the way of the buggy whip; but Siri gotta join the steering wheel on the way out the door.

 

[Romeo_Nightfall]

Steering wheel is a $999 optional accessory.

9999, in a CAR

 

[capvideo]

The problem with a steering wheel in a self-driving car is that it is safety theater. People are going to naturally do other things while the car is driving, and in an emergency by the time they take over and understand why they needed to take over, it will be too late.

Any self-driving car design that uses a steering wheel for emergencies is a failed design. The only use of a steering wheel would be for non-emergency use, such as driving off-map, which for most people wouldn’t be worth the wasted space.

 

[Dangerzone]

Ive wasn't the only one who suggested this.

U.S. to Allow Cars Without Steering Wheels
https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that...ules-of-the-road-allow-steeringwheelfree-cars

GM Says Car With No Steering Wheel Or Pedals Ready For Streets In 2019
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo...ing-wheel-or-pedals-ready-for-streets-in-2019

Mercedes Thinks Driverless Car Without Steering Wheel, Pedals Not Ideal
https://nesn.com/2018/01/mercedes-thinks-driverless-car-without-steering-wheel-pedals-not-ideal/

Volvo 360c concept: No steering wheel, pedals
https://www.motorauthority.com/news...ng-wheel-pedals-engine-or-human-driver-needed

No steering wheel or pedals in this luxury self-driving Audi
https://www.iol.co.za/motoring/no-steering-wheel-or-pedals-in-this-luxury-self-driving-audi-11178370

 

[Romeo_Nightfall]

I don’t like ive, but removing the steering wheel was the right proposal for the whole concept.like removing the keypad from a phone.
Kudos for that!