Slashdot Mirror
Apple Says It Is Working On Self-Driving Cars (theguardian.com)
For the first time, Apple has said that it is indeed working on technology to develop self-driving cars. The company confirmed late last week its previously secret initiative in a statement to the U.S. highway regulator. From a report on The Guardian: "The company is investing heavily in the study of machine learning and automation, and is excited about the potential of automated systems in many areas, including transportation," said the letter from Steve Kenner, Apple's director of product integrity, to the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The letter offered no details of the project, instead highlighting the "significant societal benefits of automated vehicles," which it described as a life-saving technology, potentially preventing millions of car crashes and thousands of fatalities each year.In a statement to Financial Times (might be paywalled), a spokesperson for Apple said, "We've provided comments to NHTSA because Apple is investing heavily in machine learning and autonomous systems. There are many potential applications for these technologies, including the future of transportation, so we want to work with NHTSA to help define the best practices for the industry."
or apple maps only. With apple only service centers even for tires and oil changes.
Apple products are almost certainly not over priced or if they are it isn't by much. Apples products are (mostly) priced high but that is something different than being overpriced. As a general proposition product sold in a competitive market can only be considered overpriced when it is priced at a point higher than where marginal revenue equals marginal cost. Translated that means that it isn't overpriced until raising the price any further causes profits to fall from being priced too high.
Just because their products are higher than YOUR willingness to pay doesn't (necessarily) mean that they are overpriced as a general proposition. You can only call something overpriced if you can show that profits would increase if they lowered the price. Conversely something is underpriced if the company can make more money by raising the price. If marginal revenue = marginal cost then the product is priced optimally.
... and then 'just happen' to catch fire?
I believe that's Samsung's feature.