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Apple receives permit in California to test self-driving cars

uk.reuters.com

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Re: Apple receives permit in California to test self-driving cars

#111

Post by jcfrei »

CharlesW wrote: post #64
jcfrei wrote: post #38

I doubt Apple will ever launch its own car. However it seems that quite a few large IT firms consider DaaS (Driving as a Service) a viable B2B market. If you can create a superior suite of machine learning tools (including always up-to-date road data) that successfully drives passengers and goods from point A to point B then you can secure big revenue streams from automobile companies for years to come.

> I doubt Apple will ever launch its own car. It's a large consumer market that's changing rapidly and ripe for disruption. Why would you doubt that Apple will enter it?

Because manufacturing your own car in large quantities is very difficult. Tesla is a good example on how difficult it is to scale up production numbers. And even though the market / products themselves are changing rapidly the required expertise for a mass production of cars remains the same. I think an acquisition would be slightly more realistic. But has Apple ever acquired an entire product line? I don't think that's in their DNA (EDIT: Beats being one notable and recent exception...).

Re: Apple receives permit in California to test self-driving cars

#112

Post by tamal »

ziikutv wrote: post #59

Heres a question, I know a lot of companies are investing their time/money into working on self-driving cars.. but from what I see, a lot of the cars use the same sensor. LIDAR and cameras being the main sensors. Of course, we have already seen Tesla perform well with these sensors. However, my question: Is/Was this industry only held back by sensing? edit: Restructure paragraph Regards,

Tesla does not use LIDAR, they use radar.

Re: Apple receives permit in California to test self-driving cars

#113

Post by weaksauce »

11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #39

In some markets, it is more about getting it right than getting in at the right time. We've seen many carcasses of products that were ahead of their time, not because they were bad ideas but because they were not formulated for mass adoption. Apple's own Newton is one example. It took the iPhone formulation to make the product features successful in the market. A more recent example is the telepresence robot. Many en…

to be fair, the apple tv remote is fantastic and it's better than any other remote i have used for the common features. (i do wish it had a tv power button though since it can actuate the volume but i guess they wanted to go with the standard that shuts down the tv when you shut off the apple tv if your tv supports it)

Re: Apple receives permit in California to test self-driving cars

#114

Post by mcpherrinm »

old-gregg wrote: post #95
jorvi wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inebriated on that Apple kool-aid I see. I think 90% of the stuff me and my friends play on the Chromecast is initiated by the Netflix or YouTube app, where all I have to do is tap a button. You know what else is great? If we're chilling with multiple people, I don't exclude 80% of them from controlling or playing anything by having an Apple TV. Fancy that, the Chromecast is actually a simpeler, more useable product…

Hold on, how do you let 80% of people to control Chromecast? If anything's it's not controllable by anyone by default because nobody happens to lug around a laptop with a pre-installed chrome extension. I haven't used Android for a while, but on my last Nexus phone Chromecast wasn't useful for anything other than Youtube.

Android + Chromecast integration is really great. You can get automatic playback controls if you're on the same wifi or in near proximity.

Everything I use for media support Chromecast on both iOS and Android (Spotify, Pocket Casts, Netflix, Youtube, etc) Chrome supports to videos in websites. I'd say most times I go to see if an android app has Chromecast support, it does. I'm not sure how much that's true of iOS apps. I'd guess it's less.

Google home integration is really nice too. I can tell Google home to play something on the Chromecast.

I've worked in places with Macs + Apple TVs in conference rooms, and Airplay was definitely more annoying than Chromecasting.

Re: Apple receives permit in California to test self-driving cars

#115

Post by mark_edward »

bdamm wrote: post #47
ajross wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure the takeaway is that (as above, Tesla excluded) Silicon Valley firms don't have the DNA to do heavy industrial manufacturing.

Your main point is valid in the contemporary sense, but don't forget that the Silicon Valley is called Silicon because it used to be the global fab hotspot. While manufacturing chips, boards, accessories, computers, hard drives, card readers, and mainframe racks isn't quite the same as cars, there's plenty of manufacturing know-how in the Silicon Valley. Does Apple have that kind of know-how, and does it make sense f…

But almost all of that left SV decades ago.

Re: Apple receives permit in California to test self-driving cars

#116

Post by chrismealy »

israrkhan wrote: post #69

self-driving cars are becoming a crowded space. Too many players, with no clear winner in sight. The real problem to solve here is not technical , its regulatory. Tesla and Google have some advantage, but it is still far from reality.

The main problem is totally technical! Robot cars can barely deal with following white lines on the road. How about rain, construction, poorly marked roads, fallen trees, badly parked delivery trucks, emergency vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, etc? Can cars read roads signs and understand them? We'll have full-on AI before self-driving cars are for real.

Re: Apple receives permit in California to test self-driving cars

#117

Post by konradb »

gregpilling wrote: post #106
mikestew wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, the car is self-driving , why are you waiting for it to get its oil changed?

Agreed, also why would it need oil changes since it would most likely be electric? Scheduled maintenance is a very occasional thing in electric vehicles.

I don't know much about engines nor cars but I am guessing that even with electric motors one needs gears? If so then there would be a need for gearbox oil.

Re: Apple receives permit in California to test self-driving cars

#118

Post by MBCook »

weaksauce wrote: post #113
11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #39

In some markets, it is more about getting it right than getting in at the right time. We've seen many carcasses of products that were ahead of their time, not because they were bad ideas but because they were not formulated for mass adoption. Apple's own Newton is one example. It took the iPhone formulation to make the product features successful in the market. A more recent example is the telepresence robot. Many en…

to be fair, the apple tv remote is fantastic and it's better than any other remote i have used for the common features. (i do wish it had a tv power button though since it can actuate the volume but i guess they wanted to go with the standard that shuts down the tv when you shut off the apple tv if your tv supports it)

Really? The TiVo peanut is still the best I've used. The ability to scrub with the Apple remote is really nice and Siri can be useful but the shape is a disaster and I really miss physical buttons for moving around the interface.

Re: Apple receives permit in California to test self-driving cars

#119

Post by DoctorNick »

old-gregg wrote: post #82
datguacdoh wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Articles like http://www.recode.net/platform/amp/2016/6/10/11904942/google... seem to point to Apple TV being easily outsold by Amazon and Google.

During 2015-16 I was given 3 or 4 opportunities to get a free Chromecast, and I got one. It sits barely used now, in one of the rarely visited HDMI inputs on my TV. I wonder how many of those "sold" devices were actually given away and forgotten. Chromecast cannot possibly be considered usable by most because it follows a weirdo, google-style, controlled-by-the-browser (but only Chrome) model. It is the most absurd w…

>Chromecast cannot possibly be considered usable by most because it follows a weirdo, google-style, controlled-by-the-browser (but only Chrome) model. It is the most absurd way to watch TV ever invented. I use it sometimes, sure, because it's the only Linux-friendly HDMI dongle (Chrome runs on Linux), but can't imagine anyone actually liking it.

This only makes sense if you completely disregard the fact that almost all the major VOD providers (excepting Amazon Prime Video) provide Chromecast support in their Android and iOS apps. It's extremely convenient for me; open the app, cast to the TV, and select the video.

Re: Apple receives permit in California to test self-driving cars

#120

Post by shouldbworking »

tux1968 wrote: post #89
shouldbworking wrote: post #7

Does anyone care that regulatory realities will prevent driverless cars from ever carrying human passengers? Planes and trains have been driving themselves for many years but they still have human pilots. The human need for somebody to blame is stronger than market forces trying to eliminate human drivers

Metro train system here in Vancouver has no human pilots and has been operating for 31 years.

witchcraft is illegal here in the states
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