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Documents Indicate Apple Is Building a Self-Driving Car
An anonymous reader writes: The Guardian has obtained correspondence through a public records request that indicate Apple is seeking a facility in the San Francisco area to test a self-driving car. "In May, engineers from Apple's secretive Special Project group met with officials from GoMentum Station, a 2,100-acre former naval base near San Francisco that is being turned into a high-security testing ground for autonomous vehicles." The station is a facility left over from WWII, and its 20 miles of highways and city streets are surrounded by barbed-wire fences. Honda and Mercedes-Benz have already used it to test their self-driving car technology. "This security is bound to appeal to Apple, which has hundreds of engineers quietly working on automotive technologies in an anonymous office building in Sunnyvale, four miles from its main campus in Cupertino."
I'm really looking of forward to a car I can talk to.
Mike Traceur: [awakes suddenly] Man, I was out cold.
K.I.T.T.: Actually, Michael, you were not out cold. You were in a very heavy REM state.
Mike Traceur: You know, you sometimes sound like Hal from 2001?
K.I.T.T.: I find that movie extremely confusing.
Mike Traceur: You know what confuses me?
K.I.T.T.: There are not enough hours in the day to list all the things that confuse you.
Mike Traceur: Oh, snap.
K.I.T.T.: Yes, Michael. Snap.
Yes. And they'll look fabulous doing it.
It will cost 3 million dollars and no one over 40 will be able to figure out how to open the door.
During its most successful eras, when it was ruled by Steve Jobs, Apple attained this high level of success with a small number of very focused product offerings. The focus resulted in a high level of detail and care being put into the development of these products. They weren't just mediocre. They weren't just good. They were near-perfection.
Sometimes this meant that Apple would miss other opportunities. But that's what happens when one focuses: other things are ignored so the thing in focus can be perfected.
But today's Apple? I see it running wild, chasing at random opportunities without the focus that brought it so much success in the past. We see this in the watches that nobody wants, and the complication of their laptop lineup with the introduction of the very limited MacBook, and now what may be a foray into vehicles.
I don't think that Steve Jobs, the master of product development, would have even considered chasing vehicular products. They are not what Apple is about. It's much like when Debian adopted systemd; yes, it's possible, but it's not the right thing to do. It's a clash of cultures, where the successful culture is betrayed by that which is experimental.
Apple, return to your roots! Focus on the small number of devices and services that made you so great!
If this facility is so high security then why is there an article with so much detail written about it? It seems that would defeat the point.
Following Apple design trends.
* You get no status lights but a high resolution display to run OS X on
* Turning your car on will take forever and it will not tell you that it is starting up
* You won't know that your car is on but everyone around you will see a glowing Apple logo
* Charging your car will require a new type of Apple connector
* It will have no network ports but you may purchase an expensive adapter
* The car will be 0.5mm slimmer because of the missing network connector
* Adding the size of the various adapters actually makes the device larger then the completion.... but hey, who will notice?
* It will come with WiFi and Bonjour service. Bonjour will constantly DOS the Inter Car Network to discover other hip cars
* Seats will be extremely uncomfortable but they will look fucking awesome
* You will have to upload music using iTunes
* The car expects you to be a total moron so it will not give you a dedicated button for hazards lights and similar things. All of that will be controlled by the in car "Apple AI"
Can't wait what they will produce .....
Everyone who buys Wild Hunt will receive 16 specially prepared DLCs absolutely for free, regardless of platform.
Not only that, you'll have to use your iPhone to ask Apple to start it for you.
If Apple builds a car will it have Windows?
All cars will soon be shaped like rounded rectangles. Side swipe would not be considered an accident anymore, it is just part of the user interface. All seats will be nice simple squares and people have to configure themselves to fit inside. If the parking brake does not engage you will be told you are not holding it right. You can buy gasoline only from Apple compatible gas stations with pentalobulous dispensing nozzles.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Jesus Christ! Do we have to explain the basics to you?!
Security by obscurity is bunk. You should know this.
You have heard about the Cathedral and the Bazaar, right?
Some of the most secure things are out in the open, for everyone to see.
OpenBSD and LibreSSL and OpenSSH are some of the most secure, bug-free software ever developed, and their code is out in the open. They're so secure because they're developed openly!
The cars that Apple and Google are developing will not be for sale. They are making self-driving taxis - these will be cheaper and more convenient than owning a car, especially in congested cities. UBER is also working on self-driving cars. At the latest TESLA earnings call Elon Musk was asked if they are working on such service, and after a long silence he refused to answer the question. Big changes ahead for the automotive industry,
Everyone says an Apple branded or co-branded self-driving car. But does Apple really want to play that game? It could be its a test vehicle for Apple based systems and the resulting car "Eco System" that they sell to other manufacturer (ala Car-Play, who could pick and choose the ones). The 2025 GMC Ohm (unlike volt there is still a lot of resistance to autonomous cars , sorry had to do the pun).
i hope it uses apple maps.
stephen
Everyone is building a self-driving car these days. Heck, even my hamster is building a self-driving car.
Apple had better do something new if they expect to keep their bloated stock price. But that doesn't seem likely in the post-Jobs era.
Does it fail for a week every 1 Jan & Feb 29th?
Or will be have to buy only Apple-branded gas?
Yet another thing Apple is copying from Google. Will probably use the exact same car and have a slide to unlock feature.
Why let the owner and driver be in control of anything, if Apple can have a say on the matter?
Any car can be bought if you have enough money. I doubt the like of google or apple would refuse a sale.
After it autonomously shifts into reverse, turns hard right, and falls off a cliff...
"don't drive it like that"
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
It will be sleek. It will be a smooth ride. It will take you anywhere you want to go where there is road. It will be attractive, progressive and revolutionary in the automotive industry. It will be purely electric, with an innovative way of handling power, and sport a battery with a ludicrous capacity. It will feature a thin and light frame that is somehow accident safe, smoothly transitioning engine that automatically adjusts for climate and road conditions, and a iteration of Siri through which users will be able to control the car. It won't have a steering wheel or pedals; the car will be designed to navigate without them.
Some people will haughtily suggest that this car is far superior to all other cars due to its simplicity. Others will love it because of the Apple logo and the sleek, glass design.
Older people will shake their heads and continue to drive their Oldsmobiles.
Some people will make fun of its price tag, which will be above $30k, while ignoring the fact that a lot of other cars cost that much. Others will point out that other cars that cost as much have better performance. Yet other people will say that it's not as good as a Ferrari or a Formula One Lotus, and therefore it sucks balls.
There will be many people who will say that their Google self-driving car is far superior because they can install a custom engine and dash computer. They won't be wrong, but there will be embarrassing moments where their blinkers don't work right, the range of the car will inexplicably plummet, and the FM radio "isn't supported yet". There will be more optional extras, but most of them will suck (Apple's won't really be any better, just nicer looking.)
There will be a community of people who retrofit their Apple cars with steering consoles. This will, of course, void the warranty. And somehow give the car viruses.
But the majority of people will wonder why the Apple car's hood doesn't open.
If only I had mod points
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
When Google decided to do R&D on self-driving cars, that was somewhat random. Only somewhat because Google has expertise in quickly making decisions based on a large amount of unreliable, noisy data - exactly the kind of fuzzy logic a self-driving car requires.
When Apple followed suit, that's not random, that's Apple emulating their largest competitor. Unwisely, perhaps, because this kind of thing isn't Apple's forte. Apple is good at making well-polished consumers electronics gadgets for consumers and marketing them to non-techies who value style and social cachet over utility and flexibility.
They do a very good job at what they do, for the market they target (which isn't tech nerds who hang out on Slashdot). They aren't a company who has a track record of success with moonshot products totally unrelated to their core business. (An iPad is just a big iPhone with the radio removed, for example, an evolutionary development.)
It'll never take you to a brothel though. As per usual they'll leave that to Google.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
I get it, that's why you are guilty. First steal my money, then build a car that I can't afford, and put it on the road for me to avoid while driving, eventually crashing with it. Oh the cannon has evolved. And they wonder why Steve Jobs died.
Maaaaan! So coool! I want it! Apple is always the best! Oh man I can't wait to get it. Why isn't it out yesterday?
-- Cheers!
No but they contain a hidden compartment under the trunk were a cheap Chinese employer drives the car for you, that's why those new 'green' Apple cars will drive on vegetables, bread and some meat (after charging the battery of course).
I think the evolution of transport is quite comical. I still remember the old riding grocery store with a 80+ year old guy that still used his horse carriage to sell his vegetables to his customers. He was retired but lost his wife close after retirement. And instead of living their dream, he just continued working. He just wanted to forget his sorrows and used alcohol to forget, so he just went to the pubs whenever he had the money. At the end of the day he would be so drunk that he didn't know where he was. He just laid himself in his carriage and without saying anything, the horse knew he had to bring the old guy home. The horse stopped on busy crossroads and waited until it was clear, the horse also staid on the right side and stopped for anything that drove in front of him. And the horse knew where he had to go to bring his owner home, no matter at what pub his owner passed out.
According to my grand father there were many people like this in the 30ths, 50ths and 60ths (in the 40ths nothing was possible). He was just the last one of his kind. So whenever I hear about these stories about self driving cars, I've to think about the pre-auto time where everyone with a horse had a self driving car. One that could even make his own decision without being programmed or having to rely on an algorithm or the Internet.
With the amount of bugs that Apple now is able to cram in OSX and iOS, I am not looking forward to this anymore...
i suddenly realize that with the automatic car, we don't have to study for the drivers licence. -----from someone who is doing it right now
20 miles of highways and city streets are surrounded by barbed-wire fences.
No match for some remote-controlled drones with cameras and such.
Mods, mods, mods... Why? Why, oh why is that post a -1? It is actually a bit insightful but certainly not worth a negative. I do not want you to change your moderation but explaining it would be cool. *sighs* I really should start using my mod points again.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Yes. And they'll look fabulous doing it.
Is that supposed to be a prediction of Apple's catch-adjective for the "iCar", or are you confusing Tim Cook with Eddy Monsoon, Sweety Darling?
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
Nah, try KARR. ;)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
You have to pay extra to get the model with the larger boot.