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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."
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!
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,