Lexus SUV Being Used for Apple's Self-Driving Software Test Spotted on the Road

[Tech198]

If its testing on a public road why is the person who shared the photo keeping it secret? What difference would it have now everyone would know anyway? It's not on a private road... its "public" where anyone can see.

Besides,,, you can see this thing a mile away.... Antenna on the roof and camera..... it resembles of your own personal transmitter....

I just hope given time this external tech car will change, because u now have to stop shorter if u want to be "behind a car" at red lights because u have to make that extra allowance.

I always wondered why when these testings were occurring no one else was around... Now, the public can actually catch a glimpse of how laughable attachments are.

 

[MH01]

Have you spent any amount of time on the road? It's clear that you don't need a brain to dive a car!

I invite you to UK country back roads, just wide enough for one car, guarantee you better bring your brain as a tourist the poster is right , this software is going to struggle for a very long time and have limited usage at the beginning , probably highway driving as some form of cruise control

Here is an example...

 

[Tech198]

ah !... English roads.

 

[MH01]

ah !... English roads.

Tell you what, spending Easter driving around on them was an experience, line of sight is horrific and getting two big cars past each other, an experience. Not helped by the fact phone reception was non existent , apple maps went offline , making it useless . Google with offline maps saved the weekend on my backup note 4.

From my driving experience on Easter, Apple needs to sort out apple maps before even thinking of self driving cars.

 

[BruceEBonus]

Self driving cars. The stuff of fantasy .... remember the days when 'innovative' companies wasted millions on the daft concept thinking it would be seen as a viable thing? Well they never were. Never are. And never will. And those days are now. So just read the stories about their 'progress' but if youv got something else to do with your time then best do that instead. No. Really. It's not the technology that's holding them back. It's the sheer naïveté that they'll work in the real world. Somebody. Anybody. Please. Tell them. Self driving cars. Amazon Drones. It's. Not. Going. To. Work. In. The. REAL. World.

Thanks

 

[pdaholic]

I invite you to UK country back roads, just wide enough for one car, guarantee you better bring your brain as a tourist the poster is right , this software is going to struggle for a very long time and have limited usage at the beginning , probably highway driving as some form of cruise control

Here is an example...

So, your video is to show me that it takes a brain to speed down a one way road and make blind turns?

I work in an emergency department and daily see people mangled from car accidents due to wreckless driving like that.

 

[MH01]

So, your video is to show me that it takes a brain to speed down a one way road and make blind turns?

I work in an emergency department and daily see people mangled from car accidents due to wreckless driving like that.

Nope. Ignore the driving , look at the conditions a computer would have to deal with . I'm trying to demonstrate that driving it about instinct and common sense, how do you program those....even experienced drivers struggle on those roads...

 

[sudo1996]

It's just not possible to create a self driving car that can handle all possible scenario. Why?? Because we have been trying and not been successful in creating a computer that can mimic human brain. Until then, we all can keep dreaming!!

Yes, you can't make a self-driving car that'll know how to get angry at other drivers or drive faster when good music is playing, like I occasionally do, but for enough money, you can probably make one with a much lower than average accident rate (BTW, I have 0 accidents).

 

[alexgowers]

Self driving cars, once they are in the majority, will change everything.

Journey times will be reduced, traffic will be a thing of the past and accidents will drop off the scale.

It is the future and to be honest it sounds a lot more comfortable than travelling in tubes.

Unless it becomes mandatory during heavy traffic I think the situation will get worse with non self driving cars or competing tech acting differently causing huge traffic jams. Merging traffic is the cause of most big ones along with lack of space, both of these aren't dealt with very well unless ALL cars are self driving or have avoidance measures in place.

 

[Abazigal]

Self driving cars. The stuff of fantasy .... remember the days when 'innovative' companies wasted millions on the daft concept thinking it would be seen as a viable thing? Well they never were. Never are. And never will. And those days are now. So just read the stories about their 'progress' but if youv got something else to do with your time then best do that instead. No. Really. It's not the technology that's holding them back. It's the sheer naïveté that they'll work in the real world. Somebody. Anybody. Please. Tell them. Self driving cars. Amazon Drones. It's. Not. Going. To. Work. In. The. REAL. World.

Thanks

I remember when the first people thought the world was flat too.

 

[MH01]

I remember when the first people thought the world was flat too.

You are very old

Not all ideas are great..... most fail actually. You make it sound that anything apple is involved with, is gold.... they produced lots of duds actually, which you would have been singing thier praise to be honest .

 

[arkitect]

So, your video is to show me that it takes a brain to speed down a one way road and make blind turns?

You missed the point.
That is not a one way road. That is a very typical two-way road down here where I live… Somerset/ Wiltshire.

The point being, you'd need a computer to think like a human and spot the layby, that slightly wider bit of road where another car can just scrape by. Empathy when you see another driver is in a tight spot so you reverse or edge a bit closer to the hedges, etcetera. In a word, judgement.
Oh, and do this in an area where the network coverage is mostly non existent.

I work in an emergency department and daily see people mangled from car accidents due to wreckless driving like that.

And that's the problem. Being guaranteed a (w)reckless experience…
[doublepost=1493367965][/doublepost]

I remember when the first people thought the world was flat too.

Older than Methuselah!

 

[MH01]

You missed the point.
That is not a one way road. That is a very typical two-way road down here where I live… Somerset/ Wiltshire.

The point being, you'd need a computer to think like a human and spot the layby, that slightly wider bit of road where another car can just scrape by. Empathy when you see another driver is in a tight spot so you reverse or edge a bit closer to the hedges, etcetera. In a word, judgement.
Oh, and do this in an area where the network coverage is mostly non existent.


And that's the problem. Being guaranteed a (w)reckless experience…
[doublepost=1493367965][/doublepost]
Older than Methuselah!

Spot on thanks.

I'm from Australia , and have done lot of motorsports , consider myself a good driver, though the English roads like this when you first hit them, no lazy driving, you have to be alert... and as you said, no reception, which in my case meant my apple maps was useless

 

[BruceEBonus]

I remember when the first people thought the world was flat too.

A strange analogy there, readers. However ironically if the world was flat then driverless cars would work! It's just these damned buildings and people made of soft tissue that won't take kindly to Mr Robot crashing into them that get in the way. Crashta La Vista, Baby!

 

[thelookingglass]

That's what I was going to say. How funny that they would choose a Lexus which doesn't support CarPlay. I almost didn't buy my new Lexus because of it.

Funny enough, I didn't even consider Lexus or Toyota precisely because they don't support CarPlay. It's such an integral part of my in-car experience now.

 

[WatchFromAfar]

The same way the iPod, iPhone and iPad were late to the music player, smartphone and tablet markets?

You know, while what you say is true, and often quoted, I think we should take the time to consider what the mantra is in the stock market "past performance is not a predictor of future results".

 

[obiwan]

Apple have got this all wrong. They should be putting their expertise into designing the optimal road layout. Certainly over here in the UK, some of the road systems put in place by local councils are completely ludicrous!! They would have been better if they were designed by monkeys. Case in point: The road layout round the corner from my house has been designed with a bus lane that is too narrow to accomodate a bus. It has to straddle across the road markings, pushing cars in the adjacent lane into the path of oncoming traffic. I've had numerous near-misses along that stretch of road, and there's been several collisions. Everytime residents complain to the council, they say 'driver error' is to blame. If a bus, a lorry and a car all happen to be passing on the same stretch of road at the same time, they don't all fit - so someone gets squished (and it's usually the car).

Apple need to put these cars to the real test, and drive them on UK roads. Not wide, spacious, US roads you could fit a tank down!!

 

[arkitect]

If a bus, a lorry and a car all happen to be passing on the same stretch of road at the same time, they don't all fit - so someone gets squished (and it's usually the car).

Oh, and add in a cyclist or two… and then guess who gets squashed.

Apple need to put these cars to the real test, and drive them on UK roads. Not wide, spacious, US roads you could fit a tank down!!

Hear! Hear!
And I'd put Italy down as well… Yikes!

 

[obiwan]

Oh, and add in a cyclist or two… and then guess who gets squashed.

I guess you've cycled down this road? Sadly it's true. Don't get me started on how the council should be providing proper cycle paths for cyclists!

 

[macfacts]

Apple's innovation lies in its ability to take an emerging product category with a frustrating user experience and deliver a polished product made possible by its control over both the hardware and software.

By your own words, Apple's self driving car is destined to fail because they don't control both the hardwade and software. Apple doesn't make cars.

Carplay is failure due to Apple not controlling both hardware and software. Apple doesn't make car stereos or head units. Look in the forums and you'll see tons of complaints about Bluetooth syncing with iPhones and cars.

 

[Winni]

The same way the iPod, iPhone and iPad were late to the music player, smartphone and tablet markets?

Google is supposed to have great data algorithms, yet their home speaker can still serve fake news. This shows that simply having the technically prowess in a vacuum is useless if it doesn't mean a great experience for the end user.

A great user experiences requires a company with a design-first mindset, and Apple gets both design and tech. If it's anyone who can get the user experience of a self-driving car right (and not just the tech aspect), it would be Apple.

That is all nice and dandy. But unless Apple really enter the car industry with an OWN car -- and the whole supply and service chain around it -- I wonder who is going to actually license Apple's software for their cars. Because... All the big players are already developing their own solutions, both for the self-driving "problem" and for the electrical engines. Somehow, I don't see Mercedes, BMW, Audi or any other of the big names panic or drool or in ANY way react to the rumor circus around Apple. If at all, they're responding to Tesla -- because Tesla actually has real products that they are already selling -- and if you ever drove in a Tesla, you would know that they got their Model S -very- right. Apple, on the other hand, is a phone manufacturer that couldn't even get its own navigation software right.

However, a real self-driving car will eventually look more like van or a Winnebago -- simply because it's about RELAXED TRAVELING. It's a living room that takes you somewhere without you paying attention to the steering, navigating and driving. You'll be busy doing something else entirely. Like a 1st class train ride without anybody else bothering or annoying you. An office or a living room or a bed room on wheels. The idea of turning a sports car into a self driving vehicle is pure nonsense. Those sports cars are attractive in the old fashioned way that we are all used to, but this is not what people eventually will want from a self-driving car. Let's put it that way: Apple doesn't even get the Mac Pro right anymore, because they are completely out of touch with the expectations that users have for a workstation-class computer. Now they are supposed to be the only ones getting a self-driving car right? I HIGHLY doubt that.
[doublepost=1493376403][/doublepost]

No one has released a completely automated self-driving product. Everyone is still in the testing phase.

Nobody can release such a product simply because laws won't allow it -- yet. The closest thing to a released product is what Tesla offers -- with a lot of legal disclaimers and with an official BETA RELEASE label. The entire industry doesn't expect mass availability - and full legality - for self-driving vehicles for at least another decade, and they're most likely right with that.

 

[Abazigal]

You know, while what you say is true, and often quoted, I think we should take the time to consider what the mantra is in the stock market "past performance is not a predictor of future results".

I could say the same about the "broken clock is right twice a day" syndrome here at Macrumours where posters just can't seem to stop crapping on anything and everything that Apple does which isn't a Mac Pro just so they can say "I told you so" when Apple invariably makes a mistake.

 

[Winni]

I remember when the first people thought the world was flat too.

In all fairness, back in the day many scientists also released studies about how dangerous riding with a steam train would be for the human body and that the human body couldn't possible endure the journey unharmed. Now people travel in airplanes every day at speeds close to Mach 1, and jet pilots even take it up to Mach 5 and astronauts literally ride on rockets into space. Traveling at 300km/h in an ICE train or the TGV are normal business, too.

Arthur C. Clarke's three laws:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
   

 

[WatchFromAfar]

I could say the same about the "broken clock is right twice a day" syndrome here at Macrumours where posters just can't seem to stop crapping on anything and everything that Apple does which isn't a Mac Pro just so they can say "I told you so" when Apple invariably makes a mistake.

All I was implying is people should keep an open mind, nothing is infallible.

 

[Abazigal]

Let's put it that way: Apple doesn't even get the Mac Pro right anymore, because they are completely out of touch with the expectations that users have for a workstation-class computer. Now they are supposed to be the only ones getting a self-driving car right? I HIGHLY doubt that.

I suppose an argument could be made that Apple sorely misjudged the pro market, but there is no doubt that Apple understands their mass consumer market perfectly.

A self-driving car would be more mass-consumer than Pro, and so Apple would be in a great position to get it right.