Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

mondaynote.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 407 posts

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#161

Post by drewzero1 »

bumby wrote: post #150
drewzero1 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is something that really worries me about current automotive trends. Carmakers tend to assume a 10-year lifespan for their vehicles, though last I saw the average age of cars on the road in the US is slightly higher than that[0]. My current car is approaching 30 and I'm planning to replace it with something closer to 10-15 in the near future, old enough to avoid touchscreens and new enough to not be destroyed by…

I forgot where it was exactly, but I remember a discussion on a podcast about how auto manufacturers deliberately price their replacement electronics to force planned obsolescence. The example brought up was an SUV that has a large display that controls everything from HVAC to the radio. The screen had an expected service life of something like 7 years, but a replacement price of something like $7k. The thought was t…

Could that have been 2.5 Admins episode 78? They were discussing the incident where a radio station broadcast a corrupted image file that bricked Mazda radios that received it.

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#162

Post by dionidium »

cercatrova wrote: post #128
johannes1234321 wrote: post #119

Earlier 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.

It was a significant factor for me when I last bought a car.

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#163

Post by boxed »

pGuitar wrote: post #149
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.

Apple always had anti-consumer rules for their products... not sure why it finally took off.

Besides them inventing the modern smart phone and revolutionizing an industry?

What did the romans ever do for US? :P

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#164

Post by scrlk »

packetlost wrote: post #157
scarface74 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t that the purpose of Android Automative - not to be confused with Android Auto?

Yeah, but no manufacturer has implemented it to my knowledge. Also I believe that requires being installed on the car's head unit itself

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Automotive#Vehicles_wi...

Seems like there's quite a few cars out there with Android Automotive?

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#165

Post by conductr »

paxys wrote: post #49
ARandumGuy wrote: post #8

A 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…

The biggest reason that cars have horrible UX is that consumers don't care about it. No one is buying one for how good the speedometer looks. Give me a good performance and MPG. Make the components last long and be serviceable. Make it look good on the outside. Put advanced safety features. Perform well in crash tests. A hundred more of these and maybe the car will be worth buying. People here are delusional when the…

This sounds like it’s written by a male engineer. Everyone in my life I’ve ever bought a car with/for has been focused on the shiny objects and features that were so ridiculous they appeared to be purely designed for marketing. People care. That’s why every surface is going digital, because people care. In fact, that’s a move towards worse UX, likely higher maintenance, yet only makes sense because it looks cool.

See smart tvs and good luck finding an old dumb tv these days.

That’s not to say I don’t agree with your conclusion. Apple has to do a lot more than make the best dash app ever to sell cars. But then again, they don’t manufacture anything themselves as is and do just fine. I’m sure they could find a Foxconn like partner in the automotive space.

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#166

Post by savagej »

duped wrote: post #81
ghaff wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, like it or not, you're describing how Tesla does it and again, like it or not, it's probably the direction that a lot of car controls are headed.

Tesla interiors are awful (for a car, not just for a luxury car) so I'm in the "or not" category there. It's not just about the lack of physical dials (although that's a factor). Everything about Tesla interiors screams "cheap and no QA"

No post body was provided.

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#167

Post by munk-a »

scarface74 wrote: post #138
Tiktaalik wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CarPlay does not work well at all on my 2018 Golf. There's a multitude of obvious, awful bugs. (eg. audio directions not occurring, but nonetheless ducking spotify audio for them)

How much of that is the fault of shitty CarPlay hardware in most cars? We see how well things like AirPlay works when Apple controls both ends of the hardware.

Probably about 90%? Apple is writing software in an attempt to replace native software and whenever their software doesn't perform as well as the native software performs it's on them.

I do understand that Apple needs to integrate with hardware from hundreds of different manufacturers and I feel their pain - but nobody is twisting their arm and forcing them into the market.

I'm sure 10% of the time or so the car maker is just being completely incompetent in using incompatible hardware or switching things out at the last minute without warning - but yea, mostly on Apple.

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#168

Post by agumonkey »

cercatrova wrote: post #128
johannes1234321 wrote: post #119

Earlier 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.

A good interface helps performance in a way. If I don't have the right information and have to work at it I get slower reflexes.

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#169

Post by spockz »

32995844 wrote: post #103
boringg wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean how much of a return can carplay generate on an initial investment of 8 billion and on-going OPEX even if selling to all the manufacturers (which it isn't). I think the point is that it was unlikely their intention to be building solely for carplay and an actual car was a bonus. However if they wind down the hardware play of an actual car this could be something that soften those sunk costs.

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.

Re: Apple Car: Bad Idea After All

#170

Post by agumonkey »

ARandumGuy wrote: post #8

A 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…

I guess smartphones were also outside of their main field, they were the underdog and rapidly took over. They're probably seeking domains to replicate because phones won't sell forever.
Post reply on HN