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Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars

wsj.com

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Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars

#161

Post by danmaz74 »

archagon wrote: post #160
danmaz74 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If automated cars drove perfectly 99.9999% of the time but then crashed horribly that remaining 0.0001% — taking some poor pedestrians or bicyclists along with them — I wouldn't get into one Thousands of human drivers crash horribly every day and over a million people die every year by car accidents in the World. If humans "crashed terribly" 0.0001% and a self driving car did so 0.00005%, it would already be a grea…

> And for many of the situations that you list, there is a simple solution: the car should have two modes, self-driving and human-driving. Self-driving will only work when conditions are normal. Incompatible weather conditions? Broken sensor? The car parks itself, and you need to drive yourself or wait for assistance. That would be a good solution, but many people who talk about self-driving cars don't want that. The…

First of all, "many people" will just go along with what is offered, even if it isn't their ideal solution.

Regarding the sleeping and "fetching" your car, those would still be compatible: simply, if the conditions aren't good, the car would respectively park and wake you up, or inform you that it can't respond to your fetch request at the moment.

Regarding a drunk/high person, it would still be an improvement to the current situation: most of the times you wouldn't drive yourself.

Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars

#162

Post by mcmancini »

etrautmann wrote: post #146
mcmancini wrote: post #32

I find it more believable that these Apple car rumors are actually test mules for their CarPlay system and future extensions.

That's unlikely given the hires that they've been making. I know of a number of engineers working on drivetrains, motor controllers, etc. who've been hired into that group.

Doesn't mean that they're building a car; maybe they're building OBD3 for electric cars and need people with domain knowledge. With Apple's NDAs and general secrecy policies, it's not like your colleagues would be able to even hint at what they're working on at Apple.

Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars

#163

Post by larssorenson »

I dislike Apple, their products and their "you're unique just like everyone else" mentality but i honestly want them to make this move and do it well. They might make an over priced, marginally better EV but more importantly they will drive interest in the technology and the products, leading to faster and greater adoption as well as serious industry commitment which will push for research and development and massive improvements in the industry. Just like they did with mobile phones. I love Tesla but they're the Palm pilot or BlackBerry of EV. Trend setters who will maybe get overshot.

Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars

#164

Post by ido »

mrmondo wrote: post #74

While I praise more competition in the ecar market - I do wish Apple would return to concentrating on build quality, stability and performance optimising OSX - 10.10 has been a nightmare and if it isn't fixed soon or if 10.11 is a repeat they'll lose their reputation for building high quality, stable products. I do worry slightly that they may be trying to do too many things.

Apple currently has about 100,000 employees. They can improve OS X while also coming out with new products.

Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars

#165

Post by anarchitect »

kpierce wrote: post #68

https://www.google.com/search?q=c...www.wsj.com/articles/app... Click on the google news result to get past the paywall.

Thanks for this. I went to the trouble of registering an account but kept being sent in a circular route back to the homepage.

Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars

#166

Post by michas »

prostoalex wrote: post #28
Geee wrote: post #14

It's probably 10 years off, but I bet it will be a self-driving one. That isn't a car anymore, but a moving computer, which makes it a natural fit for Apple.

From WSJ: "A self-driving car is not part of Apple’s current plan, one of the people familiar with the project said."

"Never believe anything until it has been officially denied."

Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars

#167

Post by therockhead »

ido wrote: post #164
mrmondo wrote: post #74

While I praise more competition in the ecar market - I do wish Apple would return to concentrating on build quality, stability and performance optimising OSX - 10.10 has been a nightmare and if it isn't fixed soon or if 10.11 is a repeat they'll lose their reputation for building high quality, stable products. I do worry slightly that they may be trying to do too many things.

Apple currently has about 100,000 employees. They can improve OS X while also coming out with new products.

Exactly, only so many developers can work on OS X.

Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars

#168

Post by Tad_Ghostly »

archagon wrote: post #159
Cass wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Animals and children running out last-second into the road? I feel like AI would outperform the heck out of us in that situation, because solving it correctly involves a) high situational awareness, which we suck at because we get distracted, and b) making split-second calculations, which we suck at because we panic and our reflexes aren't that fast. I mean, this is a simple situation, when it comes down to it: Somet…

> I feel like AI would outperform the heck out of us in that situation, because solving it correctly involves a) high situational awareness, which we suck at because we get distracted, and b) making split-second calculations, which we suck at because we panic and our reflexes aren't that fast. My understanding is that current self-driving technology works great at short range, but is pretty incapable of dealing with…

> What if it's somebody's pet?

Exactly a situation where you want the black-and-white AI solution. If it's a 1% chance the human dies and 100% chance the pet dies, the pet has to go every time.

> This isn't possible on all roads.

It doesn't have to be all roads to be transformational. Tag major city roads + self-driving cars + uber = Johnny Cab. Tag major transit routes + self-driving trucks = no sleepy truckers, no paying sleeping truckers, no rest breaks, on-demand cross-country trucking in 48 hours or less.

This, of course, ignores human desires for control and "freedom of the road" (at least in the US). Who knows how the technology would actually catch on, especially when Johnny Cab DOES run over Fluffy.

Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars

#169

Post by closetnerd »

jacquesm wrote: post #157
godzillabrennus wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Jobs up ended multiple industries. Musk is no small player but Jobs basically reinvented the way the game was played when he entered an industry. Musk wouldn't have had a chance.

Sure, Musk is so limited. Let's see: Rockets, Cars, Payment systems.

It hasn't yet had the same impact that Apple has though.

Re: Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars

#170

Post by parasubvert »

kriro wrote: post #153
yanose wrote: post #76

In the 1910's Ford revolutionized operations management and it dominated the automotive industry. In the 1960's Toyota revolutionized operations management and it dominated the automotive industry. In the 2010's Apple revolutionized operations management and ...

Apple has done many great things but revolutionizing operations management isn't something I'd put on the list. How is their OM different from other software companies or electronics product companies? Their association with Foxconn comes to mind which I wouldn't exactly call revolutionary.

Their supply chain and channel inventory turnover management is second to none, which was Dell's old claim to fame. Foxconn assembles, Apple designs, sources, coordinates, markets, packages, and troubleshoots - which is where most of the value in a product is.
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