autonomous vehicle

Can an Apple User Experience Be Enough to Succeed in Cars?

This entry was posted in Apple Carmakers cars technology Tesla the business and tagged apple apple car autonomous autonomous vehicle cars electric car electric vehicle EV self-driving tesla on by (updated 3148 days ago)

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In recent days, the speculation that Apple, Inc. has embarked on an effort to develop and produce cars has blown up all over the internet. If indeed Apple is doing this, they come at this market segment as the industry may be entering the most transformational period in its near 130 year history. I believe Apple can do some very interesting things in this field in the near term, but it’s not at all clear if the company behind the Mac and iPhone has the traits to succeed in the long run. Even if Apple does succeed in the near-term, Tesla is likely to be the first automaker to feel the pain.

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The auto industry is scrambling right now to develop future cars capable of driving themselves, taking the humans completely out of the loop. As I’ve discussed previously, there are still a great many technical issues to resolve before we can turn over full control of our mobility needs to sensors, actuators and algorithms. It may in fact be decades before we have fully autonomous general purpose vehicles that can go anywhere.

The era of personal vehicle ownership may be coming to an end

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Do You Want a Self-Driving Car That Can’t Deal With Weather?

This entry was posted in cars technology and tagged autonomous vehicle Google+ salt self-driving car sensors weather on by (updated 3585 days ago)
Mockup of Google's prototype low-speed autonomous car

Mockup of Google’s prototype low-speed autonomous car

Over the last several years, Google has made a lot of noise about its progress in developing self-driving cars. However, throughout that time one thing has remained absolutely consistent in all of their progress reports – the sun is always shining and the roads are clear and dry. Unlike the automakers based here in Michigan, Google exists in a seemingly magical environment that is rarely subject to the vagaries of weather. As I pumped some gas and cleaned the salt crust off my headlights the other day, I began to think about the autonomous vehicle prototypes I’ve seen recently.

Tech companies like Google are often accused of living in a bubble where they aren’t subject to the issues that we mere humans have to deal with on a daily basis. Rarely has this been more true than with autonomous vehicles, which Google thinks will be on the road in the next few years. I say fat chance.

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