Apple should buy comma.ai and turn iPhones into autonomous drivers.
Apple Car: Bad Idea After All
221–230 of 407 posts
Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
> imagine car manufacturers are somewhat tired of always building HUDs and in vehicle control systems. So gradually standardizing on a way to take all the displays/touchscreens in a vehicle and let them be run by Carplay seems like the future. What is then remaining as distinctive feature of a car vendor? The design? With their custom entertainment system they can confront they driver with their own brand identity an…
Who buys cars for their HUD? I buy cars for their performance, miles per gallon (or electric equivalent), brand value, etc.
I've only test driven a few cars equipped with HUDs, but it's a super cool feature. I can see the value of a car that projects nav directions in addition to the more standard things like current speed. There's even phone apps you can use to simulate a HUD, if you keep your windshield clean.
Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tesla definitely has some smoke and mirrors going on and is clearly overvalued but I feel like calling them a meme stock at this point is pretty inaccurate. Teslas are on the road doing things and the company is selling them in pretty serious quantities... all against the seemingly iron willed determination of Elon Musk to bankrupt the company by creating a PR nightmare and wasting money.
Compare their sales and profits to other car makers. They are grossly overvalued
Yes, but as a counter point they are grossly overvalued. If you can get the same gross overvaluation, which Apple probably can, then why not do it? Especially if you can goose the stock price long enough to hit your bonus metrics and cash out.
Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All
#224Sure it crashes all the time, but it looks really sleek while doing so :D
Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All
#225A full Apple Car has always seemed unrealistic to me. Cars are a fundamentally different industry then consumer electronics and software. Apple would be starting from scratch, and facing a lot of entrenched competition with huge budgets and infrastructure. And for what? What could Apple do that GM, Toyota, or Tesla couldn't? Maybe a better UX for the dashboard. And while many car UXs are absolutely terrible, improvin…
Tesla is pretty much a software company.
Apple or any other company that wants to step in the EV market can be huge, if they focus on build quality and user experience, and by user experience I don't mean just the UX dashboard.
There is a huge room for innovation in the automotive industry, I argue that we still haven't saw the next Model T 100 years later, and the industry grew a lot.
Give the people an affordable well build, reliable, easily serviceable car, and you might outsell Toyota Corolla.
Apple started from scratch with the ipod, iphone, watch. Can they do it and with a car, I don't know they certainly have the budget, they certainly can find the talent, the only question is do they have the vision.
Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another anecdote, but this is exactly how I chose my last car. I went to CarMax, filtered by CarPlay integration, and then chose from what was available. In fact, the lack of CarPlay integration is one of the main reasons I didn't consider a Tesla at the time. From basic things like a snappy interface and keeping my podcasts in sync, to suggesting the destination based on the recent maps search I did from my phone on…
Today I learned that people pick a car based on how well it integrates with a cell phone.
I can see it especially if the various models are "similar" - I chose my last used car from Hertz from a field of two - based on how well the iPhone played music with the radio. Other than that the cars were functionally identical for me.
Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
> imagine car manufacturers are somewhat tired of always building HUDs and in vehicle control systems. So gradually standardizing on a way to take all the displays/touchscreens in a vehicle and let them be run by Carplay seems like the future. What is then remaining as distinctive feature of a car vendor? The design? With their custom entertainment system they can confront they driver with their own brand identity an…
Who buys cars for their HUD? I buy cars for their performance, miles per gallon (or electric equivalent), brand value, etc.
I'm getting a lot of responses and it seems I can't edit my previous comment. To clarify, I mean who buys cars primarily for their built-in infotainment system that's not Android Auto or Apple CarPlay? If a car has either one, then I don't really care what it comes built-in with because I won't be using it. Beyond that, other factors are necessary too such as MPG as I mentioned.
Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
Imagine a world where the car manufacturers no longer deal with software development for the vehicle, but instead you have a licensing agreement with Apple where CarPlay is the interface. Similar to Volvo and Google and Android Automotive. A lot of car manufacturers are standardizing around Android in general (see Acura, Volvo, BMW). If Apple could get in with an A-series chip and a custom software stack, then that w…
Given the thread on Volvo and polestar bemoaning all the issues with the new Android Auto versions, I’m not so eager to continue in that trend. Let the car companies do what they do best. Build an automotive grade car that does the car thing really well and leave the entertainment to the CarPlay. Getting hud and center driver console display driven by CarPlay would be awesome though.
Looks like that might be coming in 2023 if the CarPlay site is any hint: https://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/
>Next generation of CarPlay
This next generation of CarPlay is the ultimate iPhone experience for the car. It provides content for all the driver’s screens including the instrument cluster, ensuring a cohesive design experience that is the very best of your car and your iPhone. Vehicle functions like radio and temperature controls are handled right from CarPlay. And personalization options ranging from widgets to selecting curated gauge cluster designs make it unique to the driver.
Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
Almost every new car sold in the developed world has a display in the dashboard, but very few actually have a Heads-Up Display (HUD) projected in the driver's line of sight. It's mostly just premium models from GM and BMW that come with this feature. It's a shame that more cars don't have a HUD as it really does help to reduce driver distractions.
This is by far the best feature of our BMW F10 (manufactured in 2014 IIRC). I hate the distraction of constantly checking my speed in town, where there is a mix of dense traffic, many obstacles, outright stupid cyclists ignoring all traffic rules and aggressive motorcycles drivers and tons of radars that fine hard . I've noticed with my previous car (also BMW, E46 that I will remember fondly for the rest of my life a…
I've often thought that we should use that massively huge A pillar for some simple gauges, such as speed
Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All
#230The iBug will probably be good for some people but horrible for others. "It just works" is a fine motto, but a lie. Devices often need intervention to work properly or to work at all. Laptops and phones generally require a lot less intervention than cars. Some of us are happy to outsource that labour to others. Some of us are fascinated with how things work and prefer to at least try fixing things ourselves. I have l…
As opposed to Teslas and where the rest of the car industry is going?