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Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

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Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#361

Post by caf »

chroma wrote: post #243
rootusrootus wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People here are delusional when they go oh, Apple can make a better Carplay integration and easily outsell Ford and Tesla OTOH, why do most people buy a Tesla right now? "How good the speedometer looks" is a pretty good description. Performance is good, reliability awful, UI usability awful unless you like fancy computer graphics. As a car, a Model 3/Y has a lot of compromises and lacks many features other cars hav…

People buy Teslas primarily for two reasons: 1. The Supercharger network means you can take them on road trips without worrying. This isn't the case for other EVs which use the Electrify America charging network. 2. They're basically iPhones on wheels. Unlike every other car manufacturer, you get constant software updates and improvements. Since I bought my car, software updates have increased its power by 5%, improv…

For most use-cases, that flexibility outweighs the lack of tactile response.

I think a lot of the downside of the screen interface could be solved if they included some haptic feedback in the screen.

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#362

Post by kalleboo »

gatonegro wrote: post #148
pulvinar wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's to make the phones less of a theft target (for parting out). It's a tradeoff, but one most people prefer.

If the manufacturer makes parts easily available, wouldn't the incentive to steal devices to sell for parts more or less disappear? Same thing with counterfeit parts. The market for stolen/fake parts exists because OEM parts are essentially impossible to acquire legally. Serialisation is simply another way for Apple to maintain control. You can now repair a device, but only with Apple's blessing and knowledge. The pr…

An iPhone-quality OLED display is always going to cost $150+ new as part. That alone is enough value to steal a phone for parts.

Personally, serialization that alerts the user "you have unauthorized parts, if your battery catches on fire or your screen has crappy colors it's not our fault" -> this is good, I am in favor of this, serialization that disables the device or features -> bad.

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#363

Post by VBprogrammer »

samatman wrote: post #260
VBprogrammer wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a big difference between some replacement parts and having all of the major components replaced multiple times.

I think you read the engine part wrong. The battery pack was recalled and its replacement has logged 1,000,000 km. Similarly, three of the four motors were all recalled at the same time, the fourth one wasn't and made it to 1,000,000 km, possibly 1,500,000 as well, the article says they don't know. Parts which are recalled and replaced by the manufacturer say something about reliability, but nothing about durability:…

> The Tesla Model S P85 is a single-motor, rear-wheel-drive car. High power and torque was an issue in the early Teslas, which caused a few motor replacements. Three units were replaced by 680,000 km and the fourth one was running up to 1,000,000 km.

Not sure how you read that as 3 motors where replaced at the same time. It would be somewhat pointless given that the Model S only has a single motor. Three were replaced before 680,000km and the final replacement made it to 1,000,000km.

The word recall doesn't appear in the article. The first battery had a fault. By the sounds of things Tesla may have found a design fault which was then fixed because of the investigation into that particular battery but that interpretation is reading between the lines.

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#364

Post by boxed »

smoldesu wrote: post #209
boxed wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Besides them inventing the modern smart phone and revolutionizing an industry? What did the romans ever do for US? :P

All Apple did is commodify the industry, and that business model has proven to be successful for them (same as it was with the iPod). At the end of the day, Apple's contributions to technology aren't chivalric acts of kindness. Their ultimate goal is the same as everyone, running a rent collection business and relying on their services to make consistent income. That's what I think we need to fix. Apple can continue…

> All Apple did is commodify the industry

No. Look at what high end "smartphones" looked like before the iPhone. It's a DRAMATIC shift.

> At the end of the day, Apple's contributions to technology aren't chivalric acts of kindness.

What? No one claimed that. The romans didn't build aqueducts and roads because they were nice either. But that's totally irrelevant.

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#365

Post by benhurmarcel »

giobox wrote: post #248
fdye wrote: post #26

So I've always wondered if Apple actually building a 'car' was ever really the goal. It seems like a skunkworks where they try crazy things and then incorporate into Carplay. Future seems to be ever expanding Carplay support. I use it and probably would not buy another car that did not have it integrated. I imagine car manufacturers are somewhat tired of always building HUDs and in vehicle control systems. So gradual…

I think this is a fair take, and I've had similar thoughts too. However, one thing computer industry people don't seem to get is how much the idea of Apple owning the "dials" on the instrument cluster as shown in the keynote this year will likely go down like a cup of cold sick at most European auto makers. In many cases the designs or colors used in the dial faces have decades of brand history behind them. Regardles…

Maybe they can start working with a car manufacturer that doesn't have such an image to protect, like one of the Chinese ones that are expanding in the West.

If it's actually good, customers will then push manufacturers into it.

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#366

Post by raxxorraxor »

fdye wrote: post #26

So I've always wondered if Apple actually building a 'car' was ever really the goal. It seems like a skunkworks where they try crazy things and then incorporate into Carplay. Future seems to be ever expanding Carplay support. I use it and probably would not buy another car that did not have it integrated. I imagine car manufacturers are somewhat tired of always building HUDs and in vehicle control systems. So gradual…

I wouldn't buy such a car to be honest. I thought the future would be more accessible cars, not some locked in trash where you have to pay dividends to even more suppliers. Although the car industry is heavily guilty here as well.

For me a car is a tool. Aside from playing music, a technology available since forever, I don't expect much. Navigation is a solved issue for the most part. Self-driving cars are far away. An actual HUD is really nice, but many manufacturers already include them. If there is ever a standard, Apple would not be a good custodian.

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#367

Post by jonas-w »

throwaway4220 wrote: post #297
aetherane wrote: post #125

I don't get why Apple's user experience keeps being repeated as "second to none". It really depends on what you are doing and used to. I personally find Android easier to use than iOS, but maybe I would feel differently if I haven't been using it for a while.

I switched over to the dark side (Apple) specifically after I explained to my mom how to pair AirPods. Idk what pairing in android is like now to be fair

With samsung and the galaxy buds, you open the buds charging case. Then a pop up comes up on your phone, you tap connect and it installs the control panel for your buds and that's it. It seems to be the same on ios.

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#368

Post by raxxorraxor »

lmm wrote: post #277
hindsightbias wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> functionality everyone wants Depressing if manufacturers and users want more chip/software dependencies after the last two years of supply chain fun.

Getting cars onto portable, standardised software makes the chips much more of a commodity and should reduce supply chain issues a lot - you go from needing to source xyz specific microcontroller to just needing to source "a chip that can run iOS/android version x".

If it would be an environment like desktop PCs it would be awesome. If it would look like the Apple landscape it would suck.

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#369

Post by kalleboo »

MBCook wrote: post #68
tialaramex wrote: post #47

HN seems like the sort of audience who can tell me. This is a serious question: Why would anybody listen to Jean-Louis Gassée? What I see is a career of failures, at Apple, at Be, at Palm, JLG was dealt good hands and some bad hands but played each indifferently. Did I miss something important ?

That never stopped John C. Davorak. JLG is known and was at Apple. That makes him incredibly qualified. Somehow. I don’t know. He doesn’t seem worse than many other random columnists.

Dvorak was always just a troll, Gassée tries to be some kind of visionary

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#370

Post by jononomo »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #324
jononomo wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really care about electric vehicles either -- I think Toyota has its head on straight in this regard. Hybrids are fantastic. Electric vehicles are an important subset of the market, but Toyota makes vehicles that people rely on in the remotest and roughest parts of the world. If you're running drugs in the mountains of El Salvador or running from rebels in the Congo then you want a Toyota, not a Tesla.

I saw my share of Toyota Prius's and light trucks when I was working in Central Asia/Siberia, but I'm not sure it's relevant to the apple car discussion. It's generally thought that project titan is an electric vehicle (and my limited knowledge of the project from their various efforts to recruit me supports this), nor are ruggedized products Apple's traditional market. Offroad capabilities also don't make much sense…

My point is that cars made by Toyota don't break down like the cars made by other companies do.
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