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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

#261

Post by fauigerzigerk »

adamlett wrote: post #191
boznz wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I was Apple I would just buy Tesla. Problem solved.

That's a ridiculous statement when you don't qualify it with the price at which you would(n't) buy. I am sure Apple would love to own Tesla too, but Tesla shares a very expensive compared to other car companies'. And if Apple were to attempt a hostile takeover, they would have to pay even more. And what exactly would Apple get? Tesla has a fantastic brand, but so does Apple themselves. Tesla has some ability to mass…

Buying Tesla would be insane for Apple but bying Ford wouldn't be much less insane. Ford has a huge existing product range that Apple cannot really shape but would still have to support.

If Apple needs auto manufacturing/design know-how they should look at a small company like Volvo or Jaguar.

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

#262

Post by falcolas »

Dear Car Companies:

If you would really like to advance the state of the art for self driving technology, I invite you come up to the mid-west, especially in the winter months, and make your toys work under those conditions.

Working up here will push your technology quite far, with snow, slush, worn away lane markers, cold temperatures, wind, potholes, washboard roads, ice, clogged sensors, blocked GPS, and any number of the above challenges thrown together in random and unpredictable patterns.

If you can get to level 4 or 5 automation in those conditions, making them work in the eternally sunny portions of CA will be a snap.

Sincerely, a Montanan (who is annoyed they had to deal with snow, ice, blocked sensors, and cold temperatures just this morning)

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

#263

Post by Waterluvian »

falcolas wrote: post #262

Dear Car Companies: If you would really like to advance the state of the art for self driving technology, I invite you come up to the mid-west, especially in the winter months, and make your toys work under those conditions. Working up here will push your technology quite far, with snow, slush, worn away lane markers, cold temperatures, wind, potholes, washboard roads, ice, clogged sensors, blocked GPS, and any numbe…

Yes! Come to Canada and try out your tech. California is so soft.

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

#264

Post by ajross »

Scramblejams wrote: post #56
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.

I'm not sure they don't, but I'll grant you that it's open to debate. Nobody does supply chain better than Apple, though, and that's gotta be worth something. If they wanted to Foxconn it, I would think a company like Kia or Hyundai would be a logical partner for them to get into the business. Apple designs it with the help of their manufacturing expertise and imposes their usual tyrannical quality requirements (mayb…

And what would the benefit be to Kia or Hyundai. These firms have already entered the market chasing Toyota and GM. They have their margin structure baked in already. Moving to low-margin/high-volume contract work would cost them a ton of money.

It's the same reason that, say, Intel doesn't (can't) do consumer logic fabrication to compete with TSMC or Samsung. They have the technical know-how, but their fab capacity is already filled with Xeons that fetch like 4x the margin.

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

#265

Post by maxerickson »

Scramblejams wrote: post #56
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.

I'm not sure they don't, but I'll grant you that it's open to debate. Nobody does supply chain better than Apple, though, and that's gotta be worth something. If they wanted to Foxconn it, I would think a company like Kia or Hyundai would be a logical partner for them to get into the business. Apple designs it with the help of their manufacturing expertise and imposes their usual tyrannical quality requirements (mayb…

Kia and Hyundai are already comparable to Honda and Toyota on quality measures.

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

#266

Post by awalton »

falcolas wrote: post #262

Dear Car Companies: If you would really like to advance the state of the art for self driving technology, I invite you come up to the mid-west, especially in the winter months, and make your toys work under those conditions. Working up here will push your technology quite far, with snow, slush, worn away lane markers, cold temperatures, wind, potholes, washboard roads, ice, clogged sensors, blocked GPS, and any numbe…

Dear falcolas,

If you really need to understand why car companies will not take your advice, you should look at their sales numbers. Car companies don't sell many cars in Montana. They sell a lot of cars in urban concrete jungles and suburbs like those that exist in California and basically every major city. Solve one major city (especially one with hills like San Francisco), and you've likely solved most major cities, worldwide.

California has 14.5 million cars registered and 2 million new cars are sold in the state each year. There aren't even 14.5 million people in Montana. It's an incredibly easy market to "disrupt" as it were, and they have people in California that are known early adopters to lean on for buying, testing and validating their product. The people of countryside and similar locales are recalcitrant and will see products like these as extraneous, "taking their jobs" and "killing their freedom of driving."

So once they've tackled the low hanging fruit market of California, maybe they might consider expanding into the harsher wilds. But, similar to public transit, the infrastructure worth investing in is infrastructure most people will use, and unfortunately that is not a self-driving Ford F-150.

Signed, Common Business Sense.

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

#268

Post by selectodude »

awalton wrote: post #266
falcolas wrote: post #262

Dear Car Companies: If you would really like to advance the state of the art for self driving technology, I invite you come up to the mid-west, especially in the winter months, and make your toys work under those conditions. Working up here will push your technology quite far, with snow, slush, worn away lane markers, cold temperatures, wind, potholes, washboard roads, ice, clogged sensors, blocked GPS, and any numbe…

Dear falcolas, If you really need to understand why car companies will not take your advice, you should look at their sales numbers. Car companies don't sell many cars in Montana. They sell a lot of cars in urban concrete jungles and suburbs like those that exist in California and basically every major city. Solve one major city (especially one with hills like San Francisco), and you've likely solved most major citie…

Car companies sell plenty of cars in Chicago, New York, Toronto, Boston, Montreal, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Detroit, Denver, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh.

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

#269

Post by selectodude »

visarga wrote: post #237
millstone wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth pointing out that the iTunes Music Store was revolutionary for its time. It was the first online music store that was legal, easy to use, and sold popular songs.

The store, yes, the app, no.

The app was pretty good back then, too. It really only started crumbling under its own weight once the iPhone 3G came out.

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

#270

Post by manmal »

uptown wrote: post #146

I'm guessing if and when Apple enters the market, they won't be selling cars. They'll be selling the service of transportation.

Idk, services have never been their primary product. It was always a hardware product, and all the software and services around it were enablers of that hardware. Sure, they could change and start a service product, but it just feels awkward.
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