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Apple CarPlay

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Re: Apple CarPlay

#351

Post by joshmlewis »

GuiA wrote: post #34

Yay, more touch screen in cars. More ways to distract, frustrate and confuse users who are operating a big box of steel weighing 3 tons and going at speeds the human brain has never evolved to appropriately deal with. 1) Not only are touch screens a very poor interactor in the first place [0], but why do you think planes and other complex machinery have stuck with physical controls? For operating complex vehicles/app…

I may be a dying bread, but I love driving. I love driving fast cars. I love racing (legitimate racing on legal tracks) and I love the thrill of being one with a powerful machine. Someone said recently that sports cars may well be the last drivable cars to exist, and I'm ok with that. If I'm not in the mood to drive and I just want to get from point a to point b then fine, a self-driving car is awesome, but I get a lot of joy, excitement, and pleasure from driving my car around. I'm not in a big city where it's an issue and there are lots of open roads to go down. I take great pride in how I drive and the example I represent when driving. I take it seriously and I wish that more people would.

So no I don't think that every new innovation is bad and useless. There will always be auto racing and fast cars. There's nothing else like it.

Re: Apple CarPlay

#352

Post by emidln »

gambiting wrote: post #144
Marazan wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without being able to determine future road conditions then automatics can't guarantee being in the "right" gear for the up coming section of road. Be that due to traffic, grading, weather, banking, sharpness of corner etc. My go to example is the insanity of junction 15 of the m8, that loop onto the west bound motorway is a 270 degree corkscrew rising 30 feet with a diameter of 55 yards onto a 5 lane motorway where…

>> Without being able to determine future road conditions then automatics can't guarantee being in the "right" gear for the up coming section of road. Be that due to traffic, grading, weather, banking, sharpness of corner etc. Latest Rolls-Royce Wraith does exactly that - it uses the GPS map data to change gears in advance as it is approaching a turn in the road. I am sure that this technology will be available in or…

An augmented version of this technology (applying known map data plus sensor data) is a huge piece of the self-driving car.

Re: Apple CarPlay

#353

Post by habosa »

MBCook wrote: post #345
habosa wrote: post #291

Why do most car manufacturers insist on having a custom software suite for their cars? Every one I have tried is shittier than the last. Wouldn't they be better served installing a custom version of a well-known operating system? Windows 8, iOS, or Android in the car would be great. They could each have their own app store so that developers who do UX/UI for a living could make great apps for cars. It would have to b…

> Why do most car manufacturers insist on having a custom software suite for their cars? Value add. Only Ford has Sync. Just like only Sony TVs have blah and only Fujitsu alarm clocks have foo . Sure, no one buys the cars for that. You want a Honda so you buy one and are forced to get BazCarfoTainment 13 . But it's the most popular software among small cars (based on models sold) so it must be good, right? Surely tha…

They should value add with apps designed on a useful base. Everyone gets a good OS with mapping, etc. and they build the interesting apps they want to build. Like Samsung does for Android.

Re: Apple CarPlay

#355

Post by MBCook »

habosa wrote: post #353
MBCook wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do most car manufacturers insist on having a custom software suite for their cars? Value add. Only Ford has Sync. Just like only Sony TVs have blah and only Fujitsu alarm clocks have foo . Sure, no one buys the cars for that. You want a Honda so you buy one and are forced to get BazCarfoTainment 13 . But it's the most popular software among small cars (based on models sold) so it must be good, right? Surely tha…

They should value add with apps designed on a useful base. Everyone gets a good OS with mapping, etc. and they build the interesting apps they want to build. Like Samsung does for Android.

The truth is they're like the phone companies circa 2002.

They control the platform, and people buy the objects for reasons that have nothing to do with the software they run. Until the software is so bad it hurts sales they don't have to do any better.

They are incentivized to keep things in their own little world. Why let Apple sell apps when GM can sell apps? Remember when Tetris on your phone was $5 a month? Yeah, that's just a step away from where we are.

The car companies are probably only doing this for two reasons. First they might get put in an Apple ad, and second they want recent iPhone buyers (who, relative to people taking free phones, are likely to have more disposable income to spend on a car).

Let's just hope this is more iPhone than Motorola ROKR. I think Apple is powerful enough at this point to avoid another mistake of that magnitude.

Re: Apple CarPlay

#357

Post by nroose »

Looks like they don't have any aftermarket plans... I have a belkin hands free unit, and a home made bracket for my phone. Works pretty well. Is quite versatile. And I still have use of my regular old radio, which will play NPR or various music at the touch of a button, without using my data or having to tell anyone what I am listening to. My daughters can hook their phones and other devices up by aux cable or the belkin, and they each have a favorite station on the radio. Sure, this system looks pretty slick, but I have a more functional setup for free.

Re: Apple CarPlay

#358

Post by lutorm »

renata wrote: post #260
gnaffle wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Granted, the things that touchscreens replace in avionics are the stuff that you need your eyes on to operate in any case (navigation computer etc). And they often replace input systems that were far, far worse (read http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/garmin-gps for a funny review of the old Garmin avionics). And in the air, you have a little more time to look at the instruments without risking crashing into a meetin…

Having previously worked in avionics I'm a little annoyed that many of the things he complains about are a combination of overstrict FAA rules and the immense cost required for certification for some of the functionality he wants. For instance, you can't warn for terrain unless you're level A certified on almost all airframes - and there's a differences between TAWS A, which lets you warn with "Terrain - Pull Up" and…

This is why experimental airplanes often have far superior avionics these days: you can put anything you want in one, without any certification. The result is cheaper and better alternatives.

I believe there are efforts underway to change the rules to avoid this "making the perfect the enemy of the good" effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Airplane_Revitalization_A...

Re: Apple CarPlay

#359

Post by davyjones »

ed209 wrote: post #296
deveac wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Yay, more touch screen in cars. More ways to distract, frustrate and confuse users who are operating a big box of steel weighing 3 tons and going at speeds the human brain has never evolved to appropriately deal with. This reduces distraction. You have to remember to take into account human behavior. In the real world, people get into their vehicle and use their phone's map application, as well as text, phone, and m…

In 2011, 3,331 people were killed in crashes involving a distracted driver. 3,267 in 2010. [1] When you say "This reduces distraction." you mean compared to holding the phone and doing those actions, right? The way I would account for human behavior is to intelligently disable certain functionality as the car is moving. Compared to someone else's life, how important is that text message? Even dictating a text message…

> In 2011, 3,331 people were killed in crashes involving a distracted driver. 3,267 in 2010. [1]

That figure should be normalised to make the comparison fair. Presumably, there were more cars on the road in 2011 than in 2010.

Re: Apple CarPlay

#360

Post by bananas »

jbondeson wrote: post #219
bananas wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd think so but I get 7mpg more than the best rated Toyota hybrid which is supposedly the most efficient thing out there. Bear in mind I drive a 6 year old 1.3L diesel Fiat van converted to a people carrier which is as aerodynamic as a shed. It also has 3 children, a buggy and a pile of crap in it. Perhaps a computer could optimise this better but I doubt it. The computer and automatic box just goes when you push…

You do realize that you're comparing a diesel car to a standard petrol-hybrid right? Diesel engines are ~33% more efficient per-liter (and usually that much more expensive). The number for a Prius-hybrid you'd really care to look at would be the city driving numbers as that's where you get all the advantages of regenerative breaking. Running a Prius at 100+ km/h it just turns back into a standard petrol fueled vehicl…

Yes. It's about the end game, not the tools.

I've found diesel engines and vehicles to be considerably more reliable and therefore less expensive. Fuel is between 5-7% more expensive here in the UK so things are good there.

The city driving numbers are about the same I found. I regularly drive right into London's congestion charging zone - at least 1-2 times a week.

51 is the expected MPG in city driving scenarios. I can achieve that with no particular effort in London traffic. I don't drive like a crazy person and hang back regularly - that is all.

My vehicle doesn't have piles of expensive electronics, batteries and things to go wrong either (look at recent threads about Toyota stack overflows for example).

The most expensive thing on a Diesel that can go wrong is the particulate filter, EGR valves and timing chains and these are cheaply regenerated and replaced respectively.

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