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.
Sketchy Report Says Apple Car is Years Ahead of Schedule, Will Debut Next Year
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
They are known, now, for stonking processing power in (relatively) inexpensive and low-power consumption SoC.
Given the power needed for good self-driving, that might on its own be significant. It is highly desirable that such vehicles don't need to drag extra electric power capacity just to drive the computing, and ensuring adequate cooling.
Just adding:
Lower power consumption is especially desirable when considering reliability. Having triple redundancy potentially moves from being excessive to feasible. Ultra-low power Lidar also means multiple sensors. And so on.
Last edited:
Well something autonomous is in the works based upon all the “Apple Car” positions being filled and patents being filed
If Apple Silicon is anywhere near Tesla's latest hardware, let alone Tesla's next generation of hardware, I will 100% be utterly amazed.
However, irrespective of any of this. I'm sure we are many many many decades away from realistic self driving on anything other than simple easy roads with no issues to deal with.
Right now, take any car out and within probably 5 mins you'd have an accident.
The car and it's controls is easy.
Fitting camera's/Lidar and anything else is easy.
Creating pretty much a General AI in silicon to made decisions based upon anything that happens, to the same level even a human child can, we're not even a fraction of the way there.
Like many, I'd so so love to see Self Driving cars today.
I just (like we all do) encounter things whilst driving, every single day, that I'm sure a self driving car could not "yet" cope with at all.
I'd love to have an electric car. But I'm quite worried about owning such a complicated machine, and getting it serviced in the UK.
Apple's long-rumored electric vehicle is running at least two years ahead of schedule and will be released in the third quarter of 2021, according to Taiwan's Economic Daily News, which cites unnamed executives at Taiwanese manufacturers.
The report claims that Taiwanese manufacturers are preparing to ramp up for production of "Apple Car" components as early as the second quarter of next year, adding that Apple has been secretly testing dozens of prototype vehicles on the road in California. Apple received a permit from California's DMV to test self-driving vehicles in 2017, and it was spotted using Lexus SUVs rigged with LiDAR equipment that year.
While many sources have claimed the Apple Car will be released between 2023 and 2025, including analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the report cites an unnamed director at a major Taiwanese manufacturer who said Apple is targeting a September 2021 launch.
While anything is possible, the earlier timeframe is questionable, especially due to the impact of the pandemic. Earlier this month, a DigiTimes report claimed that Apple was in "preliminary" negotiations with automotive electronics suppliers, suggesting that its vehicle project still remains in the fairly early stages. The report added that Apple's chipmaking partner TSMC is reportedly working with Apple on a "self-driving chip."
Over the years, reports have flip flopped on whether Apple is developing a full-fledged vehicle or working on artificial intelligence and autonomous driving technologies for vehicles in general. Apple's artificial intelligence chief John Giannandrea recently took over leadership of the project, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Given that automakers often announce all-new vehicles years in advance, one possibility is that the Apple Car will be previewed in late 2021, but not released. For now, though, the report should be treated with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Economic Daily News has a mixed track record with Apple rumors. The publication accurately revealed that Apple would be releasing a repurposed iPhone 8 in March 2020, nearly a year before the second-generation iPhone SE was unveiled, and it also nailed down the 11-inch iPad Pro. On the contrary, the publication inaccurately reported that a high-end gaming Mac would debut at WWDC 2020 and that AirPods Pro would come in several colors.
Article Link: Sketchy Report Says Apple Car is Years Ahead of Schedule, Will Debut Next Year
What if something goes wrong will my Apple Car, is this covered under warranty? Do I need Apple Care to get it serviced? Can I drive it into the genius bar!? Not literally.
Judging by experience with Apple hardware, the responsibility has been placed on the owner to pay up if something goes wrong, and Apple price their repairs so exorbitantly, that you would be better off buying a new device, rather than paying them to fix it. Imagine this with a flipping car!
YMMV
Lol comparing a Tesla (which has been out awhile and is tested) to apple's 1st attempt is laughable at best.
Why do we think Apple would make an electric car and not a hybrid, or a gas powered one?
For both phones and computers, you should stick to folks that were doing them YEARS before Apple. Just saying.
Perhaps because Gas, Hybrid, Hydrogen are all short term stupid ideas.
Electric is the obvious long term answer to energy needs.
The sun delivers alone all the energy to create electricity we could ever need.
And the means to store and deliver that energy keeps improving every year.
Launching an entirely car brand in 2021 or beyond that does hybrid or gas is silly.
Not only is it rather backwards technologically speaking (which wouldn't be a very Apple thing to do — this is the company that radically removed USB-A from its entire laptop line-up years before others), there's also an increasing amount of markets where they soon wouldn't be able to sell, starting less than five years from now.
Best case, this is a re-branded variant of an existing model (think Alpina for BMW or RUF for Porsche) that has been reworked heavily by Apple to utilize their self-driving tech. I can't fathom a ground-up model development (and approval process) in the timeframe we're talking about.
This.
If anybody follows Lordstown Motors and their efforts to get a commercial pickup truck developed, produced, and sold, you can get a sense of what Apple would have to do to get a car on the road. In Lordstown's case, they bought a GM facility that was being closed and abandoned and they are converting it for electric pickup truck production. They're trying to get their truck out by the end of 2021.
Apple would attract far, far more attention and there's no indication they are even close to where Lordstown is at. This idea of a November 2021 release is crazy.
I only ask because in the US a large number states make you have a franchise dealership to sell car. Those dealerships are more interested in selling gas powered cars and hybrids than EV's.
I can be wrong, but I don’t think there’s a powertrain on EV vehicles.
As far as I know powertrain consists on engine, transmission, clutch and etcetera. EV engines don’t need that, that’s why Apple is considering to build their own car, because EV engines are much more simplified and the traction is transferred to the wheels right from the engine.
No doors, no steering wheel, no pedals, no seats, and the list will go on...
And yet people will still go mad over it!
And yet people will still go mad over it!