The Information‘s Wayne Ma on Monday published a report which claims that Apple is aiming to gain exemptions from the U.S.’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to release a vehicle “Apple Car” without a steering wheel and brake pedal.
The latest design of the vehicle is said to feature four seats that face inward, allowing passengers to have face-to-face conversations with one another, along with a curved ceiling that resembles the roof on a Volkswagen Beetle.
Apple’s former design chief Jony Ive has remained involved with the project as a consultant, according to the report. Ive, who left Apple in 2019 to start an independent design firm named LoveFrom, apparently advised the Apple Car team that they “should lean into the weirdness of the vehicle’s design and not try to hide its sensors.”
Interestingly, the report claims that Apple has even discussed allowing passengers to lie flat and sleep in the vehicle.
MacDailyNews Take: Seems like a difficult sell unless somehow proven in actual real-life practice, by real customers on real roads, to be extremely safe and reliable. We can see the Doonesbury strip already.
If Apple ever gets around to releasing the first iteration of their vehicle with “no steering wheel or brake pedal,” they should name that model “Boondoggle.”
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If this is true. The car will be DOA
Beta testers wanted – Must have limited life expectency
This Apple car idea is one of the most high risk ventures since the Steve Jobs brought out the iMac (except Apple is far from insolvent now as when Jobs bet the company on the new Macs). If Apple really does this, would it be better to bring out another Detroit/Japanese/Korean clone or disrupt the Market with something radical?
It could be DOA as Zombie suggests or it could catch fire the way the Mustang or Chrysler MiniVan rocked the car industry. I would vote for radical as the way to go if they ever have a chance to dent the long entrenched car industry. Even if they fail, it will be a blueprint for the future. I think the whole car idea is crazy but Apple has done crazy before and dragged us into the future (iPod, iPad, iPhone, IWatch) so I am rooting for for them to get it right.
Of course it is – skating to where the puck will be…again. Get in first, smother your systems in IP patents, multi year negotiations with the federal agencies, satisfy the system and safety requirements step by step and launch the product when the world is ready; likely around ten years. Until the oil runs out for public use, which it will when use is protected for essential services not related to joyriding for freedoms sake and astronomical cost. The signs are all there, the planets are all in line. But only if you take the blinkers off.
In other news, Steve Jobs to be awarded a posthumous Medal of Freedom by Joe Biden. Thanks Joe, a worthy recipient.
I must have missed MDN grinding it’s teeth over that one.
IF this is true it WILLLLLL BE DOA………..!!!
A fully automated “auto-pilot” system must have the availability of controls for a human to take over if there is a system malfunction, virus, electrical failure etc etc etc…..
The only “control free” vehicles that work are things like the DFW trams that run between terminals on a enclosed course.
The idea of just getting in a “rudderless control free Uber” on the public streets is nothing more than a death wish.
Already we have seen problems with Tesla’s and driverless vehicles in SFO streets……
This might only be intended for a Uber type environment. One of the problems for private owners is parking the vehicle. If you have an assigned parking slot at your home you could program the parking into the car but your program have be able to deal with anomalies like someone parking in your spot, a child’s bicycle, or any of a hundred possibilities. How would you control a steering wheeless car to make minor adjustments? Voice commands or phone apps might seem like a good idea but neither compare to a steering wheel and brakes for direct control.
Agreed for all good reasons mentioned. DOA…
everyone is wrong.
the more radical the design, the greater the potential to “change the world,” the better.
Really? Remember the Segway?
remember the iPhone?
But will it have a notch?
Ya’ll are super geniuses. Too bad Apple hasn’t thought about these concerns and taken them into account.
Apple should hire us, definatily.
How to park in a small, crowded parking lot? Impossible.
Watch TV+ near-future sci-fi drama “Swan Song” for what may be Apple’s conceptual design. Fits description in article. The vehicle is prominent in a few scenes.
But, but, but… in Apple’s “For All Mankind”… Helios took over the spaceship so Ed couldn’t drive and it needed a jailbreak (password rainbow) to gain control.
Elon Musk tried effortlessly to get his Tesla cars to be built with NO REARVIEW MIRRORS & Government said NFW. ( Tesla rearview digital cameras on sides of car & behind rear window concept )