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Cook Says Apple Is Focusing on Making an Autonomous Car System (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader shares a Bloomberg report: After years toiling away in secret on its car project, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has for the first time laid out exactly what the company is up to in the automotive market: It's concentrating on self-driving technology. "We're focusing on autonomous systems," Cook said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. "It's a core technology that we view as very important. We sort of see it as the mother of all AI projects," Cook said in his most detailed comments to date on Apple's plans in the car space. "It's probably one of the most difficult A.I. projects actually to work on." [...] "There is a major disruption looming there," Cook said on Bloomberg Television, citing self-driving technology, electric vehicles and ride-hailing. "You've got kind of three vectors of change happening generally in the same time frame." Cook was also bullish about the prospects for electric vehicles, a market which last week helped Tesla become the world's fourth-biggest carmaker by market capitalization, even as it ranks well outside the top 10 by unit sales."It's a marvelous experience not to stop at the filling station or the gas station," Cook said.
What the world needs now is a $200K+ car that can only be repaired at the factory (and all the windows are incorporated into the fingerprint locks).
Ive discussed this ad nauseam with my MBA crowd. Long story short our guess is self-driving tech itself will not be a great industry to be in. As you correctly indicated the tech will be a commodity in a few years with a dozen different companies offering from a consumers point of view identical tech. The first to market will enjoy a temporary dump but that will be short lived.
What can be profitable is the driverless car platform, much the same way a phone OS is valuable, not because the technology to make a call is still a differentiator but because it allows you to control an entire industry
The current future paradigm is that the smart home, smart car, cell phone, and PC industries will become just one industry.
...and please don't try to make the car as thin as possible, OK?
No sig today...
Self driving cars will have more economic impact than cell phones have. Self driving taxis will be cheaper than owning cars, so most people will ditch owning cars (like a landline) and go with car on demand. Companies will own large fleet of cars to serve everyone and you just request when you want. Most personal cars are sitting around in parking lots and garages while company owned vehicles will be running around, so you will need very few cars (about 20-25% of current cars). Also, these will be fairly standard non-custom cars mass manufactured long lasting vehicles. They can offer ride sharing during peak hours to minimize traffic and may even let kids ride alone to school, libraries etc.
No more owning car, garages, insurance, gas, oil change, repair, gas stations, dealership, auto parts stores, parking fines, traffic violations, stuck vehicle on road. Manufacturing will be highly trimmed. Parking lots will be smaller and traffic will be lighter. People will be able to live in high density apartments without worrying about traffic. It will also reduce traffic accidents.
Oh and they will be all electric vehicles. Built in intelligence in vehicle will mean that they will go to charging stations on their own during low demand times of the day and night and serve users during peak hours. Long distance drive? No, problem. Just exchange the car when it is low on battery. Another car will pick you up while your current car goes to charging station.
Who will make first iPhone equivalent of self driving car? That is a trillion dollar question.