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Apple Scales Back Its Ambitions for a Self-Driving Car

nytimes.com

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Re: Apple Scales Back Its Ambitions for a Self-Driving Car

#331

Post by ImaMicroService »

jacquesm wrote: post #240
tambourine_man wrote: post #36

“From the beginning, the employees dedicated to Project Titan looked at a wide range of details. That included motorized doors that opened and closed silently. They also studied ways to redesign a car interior without a steering wheel or gas pedals, and they worked on adding virtual or augmented reality into interior displays. The team also worked on a new light and ranging detection sensor, also known as lidar. Lida…

This so reminds me of the discussion about fire from the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. The challenge of a self driving car is to get it to drive by itself, not to try to make it look good and to solve a whole pile of engineering problems that have had everybody in engineering looking at them since as long as we have the profession. Making gadgets and making a self driving car require a different mind-set. The fir…

Agreed. It seems like a great deal of engineering distractions from the core problem to solve. Seems like they were using precious resources to fluff up a potential keynote and make a car from a scifi movie.

Re: Apple Scales Back Its Ambitions for a Self-Driving Car

#332

Post by dimillian »

Shivetya wrote: post #236
hallmark wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have the iPhone because Apple was so ambitious. Imagine if they had just partnered with existing phone manufacturers rather than trying to build a magic touch slate. Wait, we do know what would have happened - the Motorola ROKR, which everyone should be forgiven for forgetting.

reinventing the wheel and more changes to how current equipment works, in particular viewing aids, would bury this car in regulatory hell. it would take years to get permission for it to be on the road. figure it this way, if it takes many years just to get permission to change headlight technology can you imagine the time it would take to adjust to what Apple was proposing? phones are dead simple compared to cars be…

Good question: Is the iPhone a side effect of the iPod touch or the iPod touch a side effect of the iPhone?

Re: Apple Scales Back Its Ambitions for a Self-Driving Car

#333

Post by briandear »

jacquesm wrote: post #240
tambourine_man wrote: post #36

“From the beginning, the employees dedicated to Project Titan looked at a wide range of details. That included motorized doors that opened and closed silently. They also studied ways to redesign a car interior without a steering wheel or gas pedals, and they worked on adding virtual or augmented reality into interior displays. The team also worked on a new light and ranging detection sensor, also known as lidar. Lida…

This so reminds me of the discussion about fire from the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. The challenge of a self driving car is to get it to drive by itself, not to try to make it look good and to solve a whole pile of engineering problems that have had everybody in engineering looking at them since as long as we have the profession. Making gadgets and making a self driving car require a different mind-set. The fir…

They definitely should have not wasted time with multitouch and just used a stylus and a physical keyboard for iPhone. Right? Any time someone says “no stylus” it’s time to refocus right? After all, that just isn’t how portable devices in 2002 already worked?

Apple doesn’t care about incremental improvements when talking about a new product category. They look to leapfrog. Have you considered the benefit of spherical wheels? I haven’t, but I am not part of that project.

Incrementalism would have been making a better Apple Newton or a prettier Palm Treo. Or a slightly better Tesla. Why bother entering the car market if you’re just going to marginally compete with everyone else?

It seems like you don’t get Apple or their history of product development.

Re: Apple Scales Back Its Ambitions for a Self-Driving Car

#335

Post by Retric »

hungerstrike wrote: post #329
Retric wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phones where a walled garden long before the iPhone. J2ME apps sucked, but there where a lot of them. Calling the iPhone the first smartphone is mostly just marketing and form factor. They got the interface right and built a better browser, but you could use the web, email, apps, take pictures etc on phones long before the iPhone.

> Phones where a walled garden long before the iPhone. No they weren't.

There have always been a unlocked phones. But, in many cases these phones did not even have data ports, just the built in connection to a walled garden unless you physically opened them.

PS: I was writing phone software 2004-2006 so really walled gardens where a thing. People would even gasp pay for ring tones.

Re: Apple Scales Back Its Ambitions for a Self-Driving Car

#336

Post by freehunter »

Apocryphon wrote: post #328
freehunter wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I'm understanding... my home was built in 1953 and is standing just fine. It's got new windows, new insulation, and a new roof. Are you saying I should abandon it and go build a new one? There's a brick building in town that's been there since 1842, you're saying we should rip it down just because it's old? Has everyone in this entire thread lost their damn minds? First meth-head farmers are "living in l…

I hope you can take a step back and realize how rude your comment is.

Nice try.

Re: Apple Scales Back Its Ambitions for a Self-Driving Car

#337

Post by briandear »

amelius wrote: post #317
athenot wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and no. Part of doing a technology leap is getting people to dream. There are always rough edges associated with the new technology, and in those times, it's nice to be able to still enjoy the dream. As an example, consider the transition from MacOS 9 -> Mac OS X (public beta days). The tough challenge was what's below the hood, the new UNIX foundation, the NeXTStep APIs, being able to mitigate the conversion pai…

True, but in this case it's a sugar coating without any cake below it.

[citation needed] — how do you know what Apple has or doesn’t have? People are making assumptions based on leaks — leaks, that wouldn’t surprise me if they were actually coordinated and on purpose designed to mislead the media.

Five random Titan engineers wouldn’t just start talking to the Times. Not if they wanted to stay working at Apple. So it makes you wonder if their “leaking” is designed to mislead.

Re: Apple Scales Back Its Ambitions for a Self-Driving Car

#338

Post by stevenwoo »

MarkMc wrote: post #167
zb wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of last year, Waymo were saying it will take up to 30 years, and they're widely considered to be in the lead: http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/self...

The article you linked to indicates that places with good weather and good roads could see the technology in 3 years. For all places in all conditions it may take 30 years: "this technology is almost certainly going to come out incrementally. We imagine we are going to find places where the weather is good, where the roads are easy to drive — the technology might come there first. And then once we have confidence wit…

Even in the Bay Area, there is periodically bad to less than perfect weather - we had 30+ straight days of rain about 15 years ago in one of the El Nino years, and that would have killed Waymo's steering wheel-less cars' useability. It's almost like none of the people who made that decision were here when that happened.

Re: Apple Scales Back Its Ambitions for a Self-Driving Car

#339

Post by macintux »

intoverflow2 wrote: post #301
72deluxe wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to be completely lost but what is "visual voicemail"? This is an odd term - almost as daft as "visual BASIC"

Instead of calling a number and listening to messages one by one you have an inbox and can play/delete them using a UI.

I think we've gotten so used to it we forget just how awful it used to be.

Re: Apple Scales Back Its Ambitions for a Self-Driving Car

#340

Post by macintux »

MrFoof wrote: post #308
tempestn wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ISTM you could get all the same benefits much more easily using four-wheel independent steering, on regular, cylindrical wheels. The design could also be much more compact by sacrificing fully horizontal motion. (IE if the rear wheels only turned up to +-30 degrees, say.) It could still park very tightly using a zig-zag motion, and in any other situation tighter turning wouldn't be useful. Porsche (and possibly other…

Active rear-wheel steering actually has a far larger history than its recent resurgence from Porsche, actually coming from Japanese manufacturers with mostly hydraulic (not electric) implementations. * Nissan stared offering it with several 1986 Skyline trims, and would also offer it on Z32 300ZXs. * Honda starting offering it on the 1987 Prelude, and also on the Accord starting in 1991. * The 1988 Mazda 626 sedan (p…

I briefly drove a Honda with 4-wheel steering in the early 90s. All I remember is the amazing turning radius.
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