Tim Cook Confirms Apple's Focus on Autonomous Driving Systems

[neutralguy]

Tesla will get it 1st, Waymo will fail as its a moonshot project, Uber will come later, all manufacturers later and then Apple will enter the space. Meanwhile, our iOS will continue to crash, Siri does not understand us and the Macs are getting more expensive with less ports and power every year.

I may be wrong.. but that prediction sounds completely wrong.

Tesla's future will be decided by end of this year. It's riding high on hot air.

Uber is on self-destruction path. Once the CEO goes on leave of absence, who knows what will happen to the company.

Waymo may succeed because google will pump a lot of money into it. Today we all are talking about self driving cars because of google, not Tesla or Uber or Apple.

 

[routine_analyst]

Blah.

Boring man does yet another boring stupid thing by telling the press what he's working on before he announces it. Literally zero showmanship. Perhaps he should move over to politics where his strengths shine bright.

 

[doelcm82]

Its not the same, because the phone can be sold with 40% margins. The car isn't going to have good margins at all, it will also require a network of locations where you can repair it, stocking parts for years for past models etc etc. Apple could surely do it, but making a car isn't high enough margin for them to waste their time. Putting systems in other manufacturers cars makes sense on the surface but I don't think the manufacturers will really want to do it as I think they will want full control over any AI system

It is the same in that you have a list of reasons why Apple can't succeed in the current market.

Apple may have a different model in mind.

 

[konqerror]

You do realize that cars currently ARE run by computers right? When's the last time one of those failed on you?

Your realize that braking and steering work without computers? Do you also realize that your transmission has a fail-safe mechanical mode (computer dies, it shifts into a particular gear). Do you also realize that people's cars do stall out because the engine computer fails, which is already double-redundant on modern cars, and that doesn't necessarily cause a fatal accident like a failure in vehicle path control does?

People here are proposing systems that drive cars within inches of each other, and allow you to drive home drunk. There's a huge gap between that and cruise control in terms of failures.

 

[mrhick01]

Can't Cook just get his head out of his ahem and focus on APPLE MACINTOSH computers again? Where are the updates for the MacMini, the Pro? All talk and when they finally deliver something new, they truly think it's worth the money on something that's overpriced and weak on the market of computers. Focus damn it, it's this and so many useless stuff they have been working on. TESLA is doing a great job in this, why compete with a titan when you can't even compete with other seriously more powerful computers that are cheaper than any Apple product out there. There is a level of insanity here I don't understand why people aren't reacting towards more negatively. Mac's have been dumbed down, thinned out and overpriced, the Operating Systems as well, they serve a bigger monetary organism now not the creativity an Apple once was destined to do. Now it's just "deal with it, you'll buy it anyway" More and more the iPhone is becoming a mess... sorry but no headphone jack stick? So we're forced to used adaptors and battery powered devices when we're supposed to go GREEN. Every lithium powered device is already a bad thing, so now we pollute even more with such additions. For every million iPhone that demands wireless speakers and headphones, just made it even less green. Whatever, I don't understand Apple anymore, it's not producing our wishes it's producing Products based on Obsolescence.. they have done this for a while and we keep throwing money at them like a cult.

What are you talking about? Apple is focusing on computers again. The hardware, software guys are doing that? Did you miss the WWDC?

Apple is a computer company, but it's far beyond the little boxes that sit on your desk or in your lap. That's not where the money is.

 

[Altis]

Can't wait for a permanent, forced OTA carOS update to make the car only go 30 and accelerate like a garbage truck.

 

[masterbaron]

may as well ... just call it mass transit. Once your car is connected it's no longer yours - you may park it on your driveway - you may even ride in it alone but where it goes, how it goes and when it goes is slowly slipping away from us - not to mention who also knows where it goes.

I can see it now ... tooling along the highway to a job interview and the display pops red and says - "Please pull over and prepare for Safe Shutdown! - Your Lease Payment is Overdue" and wouldn't you know it 5 minutes later the Repo Tow-truck latches on - oh no, in fact it autonomously checks my Bank Balance first and suggests I make an ApplePay and if there's insufficient funds well then!

 

[ksnell]

The last thing I would do is to let my car be driving by a software. It is going to fail. In the street you need skills. Is not of what you could do but about what every one else could be doing. On top of that... it is a software with bugs. Would you be riding at 80 MPH on a software?

We ride in planes with autopilot though. That uses software and goes faster than 80 mph.

 

[AFEPPL]

Cars can pretty much drive themselves already. Lane monitoring, sign recognition, safety braking, traffic jam assist, adaptive cruise to name a few. Many of these were demo'd in the 90s and have now been pretty much perfected but legislation limits their current usage. Set a speed and the cars just does the rest for you. IF Audi for example hadn't limited the time before you have to touch the wheel to make sure you are there (even then a simple touch and its happy again) I could do it now.

Kids love watching the car drive itself while we are out and about.
[doublepost=1497376900][/doublepost]

We ride in planes with autopilot though. That uses software and goes faster than 80 mph.

But that has little or no random elements with much less users contending for the same space.
Anything in Class A airspace is controlled by ATC under IFR. Not many cats or children walking around above 18000FT.

 

[Deacon-Blues]

I feel like this is really a huge waste of time, energy and money for Apple. Let car companies do car stuff. Apple should be focusing on the products that have actually put them where they are. Desktop and laptop computers, tablets, cell phones and other electronic devices. They stopped making the Airport but they are working on autonomously driving cars? Please.

 

[bollman]

We ride in planes with autopilot though. That uses software and goes faster than 80 mph.

The autopilot on an aircraft is just slightly more capable than your cars cruise control, computer-wise.
All it does is to maintain speed, altitude and heading. It can be connected to a flight computer which in turn controls those 3 axis. It's not necessarily connected to TCAS and if anything goes haywire or if the system detects the slightest anomaly the pilots hear a warning and the control is transferred to the pilot.
As stated before, the airspace is very closely monitored and spacing between aircrafts are heavily guarded both by systems on the ground and by ATC personell. The autopilot does not have to deal with erratic pilots in other aircrafts.

 

[applezulu]

may as well ... just call it mass transit. Once your car is connected it's no longer yours - you may park it on your driveway - you may even ride in it alone but where it goes, how it goes and when it goes is slowly slipping away from us - not to mention who also knows where it goes.

I can see it now ... tooling along the highway to a job interview and the display pops red and says - "Please pull over and prepare for Safe Shutdown! - Your Lease Payment is Overdue" and wouldn't you know it 5 minutes later the Repo Tow-truck latches on - oh no, in fact it autonomously checks my Bank Balance first and suggests I make an ApplePay and if there's insufficient funds well then!

That's an entertaining scenario, but not fundamentally different than how things already operate. If you're sufficiently delinquent on a car payment right now, they'll come find it and tow it away from your driveway or the grocery store parking lot or wherever you happen to leave it. I'm pretty sure at that point they won't check in with you to see if you need it to get to a job interview or wherever. Chances are in the high-tech future, you'll actually get more consistent advance notice of such financial doom, with warnings from the car every time you start it up.

As far as angst over any resemblance to mass transit, so what? New York City is full of people who don't own cars, don't drive, don't even have a license and are entirely happy about that. "America's love affair with the automobile" is at least in part a manipulated fabrication of the automotive industry in the first place. It's the whole story of postwar urban sprawl. Prior to the second world war, even small cities had light rail, trolleys and buses, and Greyhound and Trailways made stops all over the countryside. If you'll notice, first ring suburbs of any American city are built on the grid system of blocks conducive to pedestrian access to the trolleys and buses that used to run throughout. Then the likes of General Motors bought out all those trolley and transit systems in order to shut them down, making cars more needed. Zoning for subdivisions with cul-de-sacs and separate strip-mall commerce came next, making cars an absolute necessity.

So you're a little late to the game with conspiratorial dystopian suspicions about corporate control over transportation. They already had that control when they forced most of America to own or lease multiple cars per family. If you think the thousands of dollars you spend every year on car ownership is 'freedom,' you're not paying attention.

 

[AppleCar+]

It's funny to read this, if your replace "car" with "social network". Oh wait...

Way to cherry pick one of their handful of major company successes. How about you replace it with any of their failures or "hobbies" **cough cough apple tv**
[doublepost=1497368852][/doublepost]

You do realize that cars currently ARE run by computers right? When's the last time one of those failed on you?

It's funny you mention this. Was a bit ago, I'd say 5-7 years ago, but I pulled up to a QuickTrip late one night to get a drink. Was in and out, and returned to the parking lot. A few spaces over was a guy who was viciously beating the steering wheel of a brand new Lexus coupe. It took a minute to figure out why, but around this time luxury vehicles were adding automated seat adjustment systems in their cars. Essentially, you sit in the car, and then it tweaks the seat to your preference that you previously set. Except in this particular Lexus, it was clearly confused, moving the seat up, down, back, forward just aimlessly. So you can understand the drivers frustration to have him reach the pedals and steering wheel only to be pulled away from it moments later.

The moral is, everything software controlled can fail. Just bought a new car with the driver seat adjustment switches in it as well, and had some drama with it myself (user error in my part, turns out it's linked to the keys as well. But that wasn't automatically clear).

 

[applezulu]

I feel like this is really a huge waste of time, energy and money for Apple. Let car companies do car stuff. Apple should be focusing on the products that have actually put them where they are. Desktop and laptop computers, tablets, cell phones and other electronic devices. They stopped making the Airport but they are working on autonomously driving cars? Please.

Here's your quote, adjusted back to 2007: "I feel like this is really a huge waste of time, energy and money for Apple. Let phone companies do phone stuff. Apple should be focusing on the products that have actually put them where they are. Desktop and laptop computers, and iPods."

Also, Apple has not stopped making Airport devices. Despite rumors to the contrary, they are still fully in stock at your local Apple store. The last firmware update for them was just a few months ago. There may be some upcoming realignment or replacement of the Airport product line with something else (I think there is, and it has something to do with the upcoming HomePods, though it's not the HomePods themselves), but all the hoo-ha about them simply abandoning Airport is nonsense.
[doublepost=1497379321][/doublepost]

The autopilot on an aircraft is just slightly more capable than your cars cruise control, computer-wise.
All it does is to maintain speed, altitude and heading. It can be connected to a flight computer which in turn controls those 3 axis. It's not necessarily connected to TCAS and if anything goes haywire or if the system detects the slightest anomaly the pilots hear a warning and the control is transferred to the pilot.
As stated before, the airspace is very closely monitored and spacing between aircrafts are heavily guarded both by systems on the ground and by ATC personell. The autopilot does not have to deal with erratic pilots in other aircrafts.

Yes, but most new aircraft are now controlled by fly-by-wire systems, which means there are computers between the pilot's stick and pedals and the plane's flight control surfaces. They no longer have direct cables and hydraulic systems that connect the pilot to engines, wings and tail. The military's most sophisticated fighter aircraft would be literally unable to fly without the use of computers for controlling the aircraft's flight surfaces. These machines would be inherently unstable if left strictly to direct human manipulation.

 

[foodog]

The last thing I would do is to let my car be driving by a software. It is going to fail. In the street you need skills. Is not of what you could do but about what every one else could be doing. On top of that... it is a software with bugs. Would you be riding at 80 MPH on a software?

https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/24/googles-self-driving-car-is-the-victim-in-a-serious-crash/


Software driven cars aren't the problem.

 

[Marcos Cerutti]

You will only be allowed to drive where the car allows you haha

 

[ksnell]

The autopilot on an aircraft is just slightly more capable than your cars cruise control, computer-wise.
All it does is to maintain speed, altitude and heading. It can be connected to a flight computer which in turn controls those 3 axis. It's not necessarily connected to TCAS and if anything goes haywire or if the system detects the slightest anomaly the pilots hear a warning and the control is transferred to the pilot.
As stated before, the airspace is very closely monitored and spacing between aircrafts are heavily guarded both by systems on the ground and by ATC personell. The autopilot does not have to deal with erratic pilots in other aircrafts.

All I am saying is it uses software. I am sure at one point, someone would not get into an automobile because "they are mechanical and could break," and proceeded to get on their horse and ride away.
[doublepost=1497380777][/doublepost]

Cars can pretty much drive themselves already. Lane monitoring, sign recognition, safety braking, traffic jam assist, adaptive cruise to name a few. Many of these were demo'd in the 90s and have now been pretty much perfected but legislation limits their current usage. Set a speed and the cars just does the rest for you. IF Audi for example hadn't limited the time before you have to touch the wheel to make sure you are there (even then a simple touch and its happy again) I could do it now.

Kids love watching the car drive itself while we are out and about.
[doublepost=1497376900][/doublepost]

But that has little or no random elements with much less users contending for the same space.
Anything in Class A airspace is controlled by ATC under IFR. Not many cats or children walking around above 18000FT.

Cars can pretty much drive themselves already. Lane monitoring, sign recognition, safety braking, traffic jam assist, adaptive cruise to name a few. Many of these were demo'd in the 90s and have now been pretty much perfected but legislation limits their current usage. Set a speed and the cars just does the rest for you. IF Audi for example hadn't limited the time before you have to touch the wheel to make sure you are there (even then a simple touch and its happy again) I could do it now.

Kids love watching the car drive itself while we are out and about.
[doublepost=1497376900][/doublepost]

But that has little or no random elements with much less users contending for the same space.
Anything in Class A airspace is controlled by ATC under IFR. Not many cats or children walking around above 18000FT.

The point is, software is used in highly critical applications where a software bug would be devastating and we still manage to get by alright.

 

[Thunderhawks]

No one. In Life. Has ever asked for self driving cars.

LOL. This push is so bizarre to me. Who in the world would want this? These are like Red Light Cameras.

If you want to go back in life from the very beginning, no one has ever asked for anything, because their imagination was limited.

When the first human burned her/himself with FIRE, they had no idea of its capabilities.

Same for wheels, steam, railroad, flying, oil, internet, smartphones etc. and here we are on the verge of another revolution.

BTW: It's okay to keep on walking everywhere, long time ago nobody has asked for cars.

 

[epca12]

It's strange that he's discussing it but its not really a secret anyway

 

[winston1236]

Too little, too late.

 

[Cavan2211]

Just open Carplay for all kind of Apps, especially navigation apps.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

It's funny to read this, if your replace "car" with "social network". Oh wait...

Way to cherry pick one of their handful of major company successes. How about you replace it with any of their failures or "hobbies" **cough cough apple tv**

Way to fail pick a product line that has sold more than 25 million.

 

[AFEPPL]

The point is, software is used in highly critical applications where a software bug would be devastating and we still manage to get by alright.

Hence why they are supervised or assistance systems and not fully autonomous.
No way in hell would i trust Apple software to operate fully autonomously in a car. I'd not even want to walk anywhere either for fear of being run over by the latest bug or hack.

 

[applezulu]

Hence why they are supervised or assistance systems and not fully autonomous.
No way in hell would i trust Apple software to operate fully autonomously in a car. I'd not even want to walk anywhere either for fear of being run over by the latest bug or hack.

You ought to be afraid to walk anywhere right now, because half of all human drivers are below average, and quite a few of them are behind the wheel while distracted, drunk, stoned, ill, or grossly incompetent.

The truth is it's all about risk and probabilities. You certainly can't count on human operators to be infallible, and you shouldn't set the expectation for AI control to infallibility, either. These systems need to be developed, tested, and built to high standards. Other automated systems are already out there, meeting those high standards and are thus invisible to you.

 

[AFEPPL]

Yeah, recent events have proven that and it's not always due to being grossly incompetent either.
You could and many do argue roads would be safer and with greater capacity if all vehicles were controlled. However i fear thats kinda like the "gun control argument" in the US. No way in hell are people going to give up their rights to own guns or indeed drive cars..!