It finally dawned on me why liquid metal is so important to Apple. I always asked what use it would have in making computers. It probably does some, but that is not the real reason why Apple invested in this technology. Car parts.
I think this car has been a long time coming.
Liquidmetal is the buzz word for anything new. Welcome to the forums. What makes this car great will be design, not LM.
And now Baidu has joined in the game too, opening an R&D facility for autonomous vehicles right here in California USA. Like Apple they're also poaching Tesla staff. I guess this must be the next big thing.
Unlike VR, cars will do something useful in the next decade.
Where do you get service for an eletric car? (Tesla, Volt, Leaf, etc)
Do you need to get it from the original manufacturer, or does "Joe's Auto Shop" down the road have people, equipment, and parts to service these next-generation cars?
Service is another big reason I'm worried about the Apple Car. Not only is designing and building a car so far out of Apple's core competencies, but they're going to have to find a way to bring their level of service to car repair. It's not like carrying a laptop down to the Apple Store or FedExing it to Apple for repair. Charging is a huge issue too. Hopefully they will adopt Tesla's charging system and further build it out. The last thing we need is another way to charge electric vehicles. I'm very skeptical that this will go well for Apple. They've got over 200 billion dollars burning a hole in their pocket and I can easily see them blowing through that (and a whole lot more) in no time trying to break into the car business.
Apple's stuff breaks too. Unable to fix my MBA 2013 they are getting back to me early next week with likely a brand new MBA. What separates Apple from the rest is not that they are perfect, but that they care more than pretty much every other company. It's part of the culture and it's understood from the top down that at a certain point you forget about the financials and look at the human you're dealing with. Whatever direction Apple takes the company you can be sure they'll do the best job they can do.
These would be city vehicles and cities can mandate that only driverless vehicles are allowed.
What once sounded crazy is someday enviable. Within 50 years manual driving on most roads will be illegal. That's my bet. I can't help but feel as the human race progresses technologically, a certain part of its heart and its charm gets lost. You can even see it when it comes to TV. It was so much better and more magical back in the day. People are too cynical these days :-(
These would be city vehicles and cities can mandate that only driverless vehicles are allowed.
What once sounded crazy is someday enviable. Within 50 years manual driving on most roads will be illegal. That's my bet. I can't help but feel as the human race progresses technologically, a certain part of its heart and its charm gets lost. You can even see it when it comes to TV. It was so much better and more magical back in the day. People are too cynical these days :-(
Huh? 95% of the shows in the 1960s and 1950s were pure garbage. There is a reason why they call NOW the golden age of TV.
Are you missing horses? Cause until 1900, that's what would have clogged cities, making roads a hell of manure... There is nothing rosy about the current driving situation, 95% of driving miles are absolute slow poke horror. If you can do anything else with those 1h-3h a day, well, that's something almost everyone will applaud. When putting on their rosy glasses, people always look at the best case scenario, not truly terrible things were (that's why the glasses are called *rosy*)
If an Apple Car appears in 3-4 years the odds are very, very good that it will be completely driverless. Hopefully Apple has decided to commit a considerable amount of money to this and is pushing for an even earlier timetable so they can be first to market with a truly autonomous vehicle (Tesla has an impressive lead already).
These would be city vehicles and cities can mandate that only driverless vehicles are allowed.
What once sounded crazy is someday enviable. Within 50 years manual driving on most roads will be illegal. That's my bet. I can't help but feel as the human race progresses technologically, a certain part of its heart and its charm gets lost. You can even see it when it comes to TV. It was so much better and more magical back in the day. People are too cynical these days :-(
I'm not sure it'll be illegal, but the insurance would make it unaffordable to the vast majority.
Good move to get all the improvement in the model format. design can save both fuel (battrey power) or cost/weight and uniqueness of the product. EV - battery material would be the key bottle neck for the mass market. not just the infrastructure(limited resource on earth for battery material unless some new technology pop up). crash worthiness and safety should be resolved at model level, aerodynamic design using optimization in few light weight material might save the day. UHSS and AHSS could be utilized with some new polymeric materials. The trick is what spec you design for (what speed, weather extreme, road condition. Battery is not work well under extreme cold, radar, Lidar got interference when it fog up....). not easy. Engineering trade off need to be defined as early as possible at model level. Good to know someone is working on it.
Yes, Apple will need to create service centers or come up with some solution for service. I know Tesla can send a mobile service station to the owner. I'm not sure about other brands, but I assume that since they are mainstream companies like Chevy and Nissan, their dealerships can provide service. And I imagine that some independent mechanics can service those cars as well. I don't think that's the case with Tesla and given Apple's history, I doubt they'll let just anybody service their vehicles.
Service is another big reason I'm worried about the Apple Car. Not only is designing and building a car so far out of Apple's core competencies, but they're going to have to find a way to bring their level of service to car repair. It's not like carrying a laptop down to the Apple Store or FedExing it to Apple for repair. Charging is a huge issue too. Hopefully they will adopt Tesla's charging system and further build it out. The last thing we need is another way to charge electric vehicles. I'm very skeptical that this will go well for Apple. They've got over 200 billion dollars burning a hole in their pocket and I can easily see them blowing through that (and a whole lot more) in no time trying to break into the car business.
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Electric vehicles are actually simpler than ICE vehicles, all things being equal (like autonomous driving and other advanced systems). Service is simpler too, and less frequent. It won't cost Apple any of the existing cash they have in the books as the entire R&D and build out should be able to be financed via ongoing cash flows from exiting business lines. They would surely adopt the Tesla charging standards, which are not really Tesla's; they are standards that even Tesla adopted. And I could see Apple building out in the self-driving car-sharing model, where they would own and service the vehicles, sprinkling service/charging/clean&prep depots in and around the urban markets the fleets of cars would serve. There are many ways forward with vehicle technology and the future of transportation, and a few very large budding segments, like autonomous driving and car-sharing, corporate fleets, special use vehicles, etc. plenty of room for many players, of which Apple will likely be one and be very successful.
Another issue facing Apple is how will they sell their cars? If Apple starts selling cars directly, they will be facing the ridiculous fight Tesla is facing trying to sell directly. I guess some states think car companies don't have the right to make and sell cars directly. So much for the land of the free.
Will still be a number of years before we see the fruits of this engineering and prototyping work, if ever. I'm interested that they're working on this and would be thrilled if I could actually afford the end product.
This is one of the primary issues with the Apple Car. They are late to the party. By the time Apple unveils its first vehicle, Tesla will likely have delivered the bulk of today's 400,000+ Model 3 reservations. They will have likely announced their next model (I'm putting my money on a light truck). They have already captured a huge amount of mindshare and I imagine a […]
You know there was another industry where Apple was late to the party: digital music players.
Oh, and they were pretty tardy with their entry into the mobile phone space.
And when it came to tablets they were 15 years behind Microsoft.
Are you you seeing a pattern here? Apple are not first to market with anything. They're not even second. Their MO is to watch and wait for others to make the mistakes.
These would be city vehicles and cities can mandate that only driverless vehicles are allowed.
What once sounded crazy is someday enviable. Within 50 years manual driving on most roads will be illegal. That's my bet. I can't help but feel as the human race progresses technologically, a certain part of its heart and its charm gets lost. You can even see it when it comes to TV. It was so much better and more magical back in the day. People are too cynical these days :-(
There is some enjoyment to be had in driving but how much comes from being in control of the vehicle rather than the freedom to travel? Chauffeur-driven vehicles are regarded as a luxury and Jony Ive uses one every day. Autonomous vehicles open up access to that to many more people. Children can get picked up from and dropped off at school without parents having to rush around. Young teens can go out on their own, students can commute without the expense of learning to drive. Travellers don't have to switch drivers and sleep shifts, you can have beds in them and sleep when you want. No more being driven crazy by kids while driving, seats can optionally face inwards like in a lounge. Planes, trains, buses, taxis are chauffeur driven, personal cars are the exception. Farming and delivery vehicles can be automated too.
Jony Ive talked about cars in the New Yorker profile, not a lot gets said about Newson but he must be designing some things at Apple these days:
"He and Newson are car guys, and they feel disappointed with most modern cars; each summer, they attend the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where vintage sports cars are exhibited and raced in the South of England. “There are some shocking cars on the road,” Ive said. “One person’s car is another person’s scenery.” To his right was a silver sedan with a jutting lower lip. Ive said, quietly, “For example.” As the disgraced car fell behind, I asked Ive to critique its design: “It is baffling, isn’t it? It’s just nothing, isn’t it? It’s just insipid.” He declined to name the model, muttering, “I don’t know, I don’t want to offend.” (Toyota Echo.)
"We were in Ive’s black Bentley, which is as demure as a highly conspicuous luxury car can be. The hood barely sloped, and it met the car’s front end at a tightly curved corner that mirrored the iPhone 6 in Ive’s left hand. We were in the back seat: Ive has reluctantly accepted the services of a driver. Ive said to him, “It’s just over a year, isn’t it, Jean?”"
^ Jony Ive in his Bentley Brooklands, now has a Bentley Mulsanne with cream leather seats:
"I’ve always loved the big old-school square Bentleys,” Jony Ive said. “The reasons are entirely design-based. But because of the other connotations I resisted and resisted, and then I thought, This is the most bizarre vanity, because I’m concerned that people will perceive me to be this way—I’m not. So I’m going to—” A pause. “And so I am uncomfortable about it.” Jeff Williams, Apple’s senior vice-president of operations, drives an old Toyota Camry. Ive’s verdict, according to Williams, is “Oh, God.”"
"The view from the Bentley was of dry, yellow fields. “Isn’t this beautiful?” Ive said. “Long shadows, and the sun just tripping over the tops of the trees.” He spoke of landscapes in Marin County, north of San Francisco, that evoke the southwest of England: “Like Devon, some of it, isn’t it? Cornwall. Exmoor.”
No mention of the driving experience itself. It mentions Ive was reluctant to take on a chauffeur so that reluctance could be in part to do with missing out on the enjoyment of driving but it could also be his reluctance to look pretentious being driven around like royalty. What he talks about with the vehicles is the design and the scenery around. Driving distracts people from this. I don't see why recreational driving would have to be outlawed entirely outside of cities and towns but I don't think many people will miss it anyway. It is very stressful for some people, especially when they get lost or have to deal with other aggressive drivers.
Will still be a number of years before we see the fruits of this engineering and prototyping work, if ever. I'm interested that they're working on this and would be thrilled if I could actually afford the end product.
This is one of the primary issues with the Apple Car. They are late to the party. By the time Apple unveils its first vehicle, Tesla will likely have delivered the bulk of today's 400,000+ Model 3 reservations. They will have likely announced their next model (I'm putting my money on a light truck). They have already captured a huge amount of mindshare and I imagine a […]
You know there was another industry where Apple was late to the party: digital music players.
Oh, and they were pretty tardy with their entry into the mobile phone space.
And when it came to tablets they were 15 years behind Microsoft.
Are you you seeing a pattern here? Apple are not first to market with anything. They're not even second. Their MO is to watch and wait for others to make the mistakes.
If this was about a different company, Samsung for instance, you might say they let others do the really tough, time-consuming groundwork. Once the path is cleared they come in with their own product.
You know there was another industry where Apple was late to the party: digital music players.
Oh, and they were pretty tardy with their entry into the mobile phone space.
And when it came to tablets they were 15 years behind Microsoft.
Are you you seeing a pattern here? Apple are not first to market with anything. They're not even second. Their MO is to watch and wait for others to make the mistakes.
If this was about a different company, Samsung for instance, you might say they let others do the really tough, time-consuming groundwork. Once the path is cleared they come in with their own product.
You know there was another industry where Apple was late to the party: digital music players.
Oh, and they were pretty tardy with their entry into the mobile phone space.
And when it came to tablets they were 15 years behind Microsoft.
Are you you seeing a pattern here? Apple are not first to market with anything. They're not even second. Their MO is to watch and wait for others to make the mistakes.
If this was about a different company, Samsung for instance, you might say they let others do the really tough, time-consuming groundwork. Once the path is cleared they come in with their own product.
Know which company most often employed the wait-and-see approach to great success previously? That's right, it was Microsoft. As Apple got much, much bigger they've adopted a very "Microsoftian" attitude toward product design and risk.
i think the attitude of building on and exploiting previously successful ideas has magnified since the loss of Jobs. He was more likely to be the idea driver willing to risk everything, like one of his heroes, Walt Disney.
You know there was another industry where Apple was late to the party: digital music players.
Oh, and they were pretty tardy with their entry into the mobile phone space.
And when it came to tablets they were 15 years behind Microsoft.
Are you you seeing a pattern here? Apple are not first to market with anything. They're not even second. Their MO is to watch and wait for others to make the mistakes.
If this was about a different company, Samsung for instance, you might say they let others do the really tough, time-consuming groundwork. Once the path is cleared they come in with their own product.
That might be a valid comment if Apple's 'late to the game' entries were indeed using the concepts of those that "do the really tough, time-consuming groundwork". Instead they break the mold and go in directions no one ever thought of ... then Apple is copied.
Check out cell phones before and after iPhone of you need a memory jog, especially your beloved Samsungs' offerings.
Unless Apple come into this EV market with something very revolutionary, they're pretty much in the Apple Watch situation: not much different from others. When I look at Tesla Model 3, from design, functions to price and services, it reminds me of the first iPad: kickass product at ridiculously low price. Remember many tablet manufacturers had a hard time to make any tablet to compete with iPad 1 due to the price? Well you will see the same thing for other EV to compete with Model 3. It'll be a while before other EV can catch up with Tesla on pricing. Look at the joker Chevy Bolt at $37,5k and you know what I meant.
Good to hear such good news, as long as they steer clear from FCV fool cell vehicles and self-driving veh as well. Those 2 categories promise no bright future for anyone. The more automation the worse for humans, who already use no more than 5% of their brain ability. Impose on them autonomous driving and in 2-3 years they'll be as dumb as brick. May they keep the autonomy ti themselves.
Comments
Unlike VR, cars will do something useful in the next decade.
OEM
Apple's stuff breaks too. Unable to fix my MBA 2013 they are getting back to me early next week with likely a brand new MBA. What separates Apple from the rest is not that they are perfect, but that they care more than pretty much every other company. It's part of the culture and it's understood from the top down that at a certain point you forget about the financials and look at the human you're dealing with. Whatever direction Apple takes the company you can be sure they'll do the best job they can do.
What once sounded crazy is someday enviable. Within 50 years manual driving on most roads will be illegal. That's my bet. I can't help but feel as the human race progresses technologically, a certain part of its heart and its charm gets lost. You can even see it when it comes to TV. It was so much better and more magical back in the day. People are too cynical these days :-(
Are you missing horses? Cause until 1900, that's what would have clogged cities, making roads a hell of manure...
There is nothing rosy about the current driving situation, 95% of driving miles are absolute slow poke horror.
If you can do anything else with those 1h-3h a day, well, that's something almost everyone will applaud.
When putting on their rosy glasses, people always look at the best case scenario, not truly terrible things were (that's why the glasses are called *rosy*)
Oh, and they were pretty tardy with their entry into the mobile phone space.
And when it came to tablets they were 15 years behind Microsoft.
Are you you seeing a pattern here? Apple are not first to market with anything. They're not even second. Their MO is to watch and wait for others to make the mistakes.
Jony Ive talked about cars in the New Yorker profile, not a lot gets said about Newson but he must be designing some things at Apple these days:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/23/shape-things-come
"He and Newson are car guys, and they feel disappointed with most modern cars; each summer, they attend the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where vintage sports cars are exhibited and raced in the South of England. “There are some shocking cars on the road,” Ive said. “One person’s car is another person’s scenery.” To his right was a silver sedan with a jutting lower lip. Ive said, quietly, “For example.” As the disgraced car fell behind, I asked Ive to critique its design: “It is baffling, isn’t it? It’s just nothing, isn’t it? It’s just insipid.” He declined to name the model, muttering, “I don’t know, I don’t want to offend.” (Toyota Echo.)
"We were in Ive’s black Bentley, which is as demure as a highly conspicuous luxury car can be. The hood barely sloped, and it met the car’s front end at a tightly curved corner that mirrored the iPhone 6 in Ive’s left hand. We were in the back seat: Ive has reluctantly accepted the services of a driver. Ive said to him, “It’s just over a year, isn’t it, Jean?”"
^ Jony Ive in his Bentley Brooklands, now has a Bentley Mulsanne with cream leather seats:
"I’ve always loved the big old-school square Bentleys,” Jony Ive said. “The reasons are entirely design-based. But because of the other connotations I resisted and resisted, and then I thought, This is the most bizarre vanity, because I’m concerned that people will perceive me to be this way—I’m not. So I’m going to—” A pause. “And so I am uncomfortable about it.” Jeff Williams, Apple’s senior vice-president of operations, drives an old Toyota Camry. Ive’s verdict, according to Williams, is “Oh, God.”"
"The view from the Bentley was of dry, yellow fields. “Isn’t this beautiful?” Ive said. “Long shadows, and the sun just tripping over the tops of the trees.” He spoke of landscapes in Marin County, north of San Francisco, that evoke the southwest of England: “Like Devon, some of it, isn’t it? Cornwall. Exmoor.”
No mention of the driving experience itself. It mentions Ive was reluctant to take on a chauffeur so that reluctance could be in part to do with missing out on the enjoyment of driving but it could also be his reluctance to look pretentious being driven around like royalty. What he talks about with the vehicles is the design and the scenery around. Driving distracts people from this. I don't see why recreational driving would have to be outlawed entirely outside of cities and towns but I don't think many people will miss it anyway. It is very stressful for some people, especially when they get lost or have to deal with other aggressive drivers.
i think the attitude of building on and exploiting previously successful ideas has magnified since the loss of Jobs. He was more likely to be the idea driver willing to risk everything, like one of his heroes, Walt Disney.
That might be a valid comment if Apple's 'late to the game' entries were indeed using the concepts of those that "do the really tough, time-consuming groundwork". Instead they break the mold and go in directions no one ever thought of ... then Apple is copied.
Check out cell phones before and after iPhone of you need a memory jog, especially your beloved Samsungs' offerings.
God, I hope not. There won't be any space for me with that guy on it. I wonder if they will sell it without the guy...