Apple Signs Deal With Volkswagen For Driverless Cars (nytimes.com) 69
Apple has reportedly signed a deal with Volkswagen (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source) to turn some of the carmaker's new T6 Transporter vans into Apple's self-driving shuttles for employees. The deal comes after the tech giant failed to partner with luxury carmakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz to develop an all-electric self-driving car. "[T]talks with those companies have ended after each rebuffed Apple's requirements to hand over control of the data and design," reports The New York Times. From the report: Apple's deal with Volkswagen, which hasn't been previously reported, and the failure of its talks with other automakers reflect the continuing travails and diminished scope of the company's four-year-old car program. The project has suffered from repeated changes in direction that have hurt morale and led to hundreds of departures from its peak of more than 1,000 members two years ago, five former Apple employees said. They added that the team was now mostly consumed with developing the self-driving shuttle but the project lacks a clear plan beyond the vans.
Driverless, really? (Score:2)
Or do they really mean self-driving, but not really because you can't actually trust it enough to drive itself?
Or we talking about cars in some sort of nonphysical reality that doesn't need to worry about things like pedestrians, other traffic, or concrete barricades?
Likely blunder (Score:1)
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Nokia was pretty much dead when it signed that contract.
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Projected pattern analysis with additional light inputs makes robotic vehicles possible. Projecting a pattern onto the surrounds using the invisible to us light spectrum, allows computers to analyse the three dimensional surface around them and analyse it, see it and react to it. A pattern has a set appearance when projected on a flat surface at a set distance, as the distance increases or decreases so the pattern changes size. As the surface changes from flat relatively to the projection point, to tilted s
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Don't even need to project anything. Just use two (or more) optical cameras and do stereo vision with them. Requires a bit of intelligence to match up the images, but the rest is just trig.
As to pedestrians, provided they are carrying an iPhone then it can tell the car where they are. And if they are not carrying an iPhone, not a problem.
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Don't even need to project anything. Just use two (or more) optical cameras and do stereo vision with them. Requires a bit of intelligence to match up the images, but the rest is just trig.
As to pedestrians, provided they are carrying an iPhone then it can tell the car where they are. And if they are not carrying an iPhone, not a problem.
...and if they are Androidians, just run them over?
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Just so. A win-win for Apple....
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You do not understand the nature of colour, patterns and shadowing, variabilities of light et al. Eliminate variables and you simplify the problem, down to something than can be calculated many times a second. If it was so easy, the US military, who only get third raters now, would not be running Google and Google would have already solved it but it seems they are struggling. Reality is, this is the best way to let computers to be able to see in 3D. Even facial recognition is hugely changed because you can
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Volkswagen must be desperate if they are doing deals with Apple. I guess they need to catch up fast.
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Im sure apple has worked out the code to throttle the engine when the emissions get too high.
Errm, yeah, emissions on an electric car. If you are smoking something - I'm sure you are. Is that's what you are worried about? That your car will not actually self drive when you need that the most? When you are stoned so much you can't sit without falling over (not that you would notice because you are floating)?
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Sounds like, from the body of the article, that Apple is mostly a customer in this deal. States they don't have any deal beyond the transit buses, and sounds like the plan is just to run them around the Apple campus. So no need to worry about data sharing... if Apple is mostly just using VW buses for testing.
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States they don't have any deal beyond the transit buses, and sounds like the plan is just to run them around the Apple campus. So no need to worry about data sharing.
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"sounds like the plan is just to run them around the Apple campus."
I'm guessing it'll probably run at very low speed along a programmed path and have big red stop buttons the passengers can press in case of an emergency.
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You know that VW is the second largest auto maker in the world, right?
They should buy Tesla (Score:2)
EOM
Re: Bit of a blow to Apple's self image (Score:1)
Apple could buy either of them for cash though.
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Bit of a blow to Apple's self image,
Not at all, it makes sense. VW are 4 out of the top 10 gay cars, with the VW Jetta in top place :-
https://roygbiv.jezebel.com/th... [jezebel.com]
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Down-modded LoL! - someone must own a Jetta
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What's in it for Mercedes/BWM to deliver a small number of cars and earn some peanuts for customization?
If it becomes a fiasco (most likely) they get a PR hit. If it succeeds (hah) Apple licenses it to everyone any way. Only way this really makes much sense is as a joint venture. Otherwise Apple should just buy the cars and modify them themselves.
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What's in it for Mercedes/BWM to deliver a small number of cars and earn some peanuts for customization?
If it becomes a fiasco (most likely) they get a PR hit. If it succeeds (hah) Apple licenses it to everyone any way. Only way this really makes much sense is as a joint venture. Otherwise Apple should just buy the cars and modify them themselves.
Worse yet, Merc/BMW risk brand dilution by partnering with Apple. I'm not surprised that Stuttgart gave them the cold shoulder, what have they got to gain compared to what they have to lose.
This wont be popular, but Apple pretty much are the Volkswagen of the computing/communications world. They produce mediocre stuff and pretend its superior even though people on benefits can buy it, they even try to pass themselves off as a premium brand to try to justify higher prices when the difference between a Po
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What's in it for Mercedes/BWM to deliver a small number of cars and earn some peanuts for customization?
If it becomes a fiasco (most likely) they get a PR hit. If it succeeds (hah) Apple licenses it to everyone any way. Only way this really makes much sense is as a joint venture. Otherwise Apple should just buy the cars and modify them themselves.
Worse yet, Merc/BMW risk brand dilution by partnering with Apple. I'm not surprised that Stuttgart gave them the cold shoulder, what have they got to gain compared to what they have to lose.
Funny that the guys who own Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini aren't scared. Note how I don't even mention Porsche?
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Yeah, because VW doesn't own any luxury badges (Porsche, Lamborghini, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti)
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Bit of a blow to Apple's self image,
Turns out Apple isn't actually a luxury brand.
More like a blow to the blowhards who keep claiming Apple is a luxury brand.
Eco-freindly (Score:1)
On the bright side [1] all the new white cars will reflect a lot of sunlight reducing global warming.
[1] Considering all the new reflected sunlight, a really bright side.
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AppleDieselGate, in the headlines 2027.
Only if an idiot like you adds a roll coal device to an electric car, you moron.
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but apple does not work that way.
https://venturebeat.com/2018/0... [venturebeat.com]
https://forums.macrumors.com/t... [macrumors.com]
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dealer only service even an DIY oil change voids your warranty and right to get an other service or parts for the car.
Well, if you do DIY oil change on an electric car, you've already proven you are an idiot.
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"The project has suffered from repeated changes in direction
Did they mean that literally? Sounds like when a kid first rides a bike.
They'll invent the (Score:2)
FarfegNewton
Most cars (Score:2)
VW Bug (Score:2, Funny)
I honestly thought they already had a deal with each other for the looky feely of the iphone and the VW bug.
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And then lie about it.
Why mention Google in this debate?
You are (Score:1)
Ah, a matchup for the ages... (Score:2)
"You're holding it wrong" meets “defeat devices” ... what could go wrong?
It could even best the Uber-Volvo pairing -- "safest cars in the world" meets "remove the pesky safety stuff".
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I wonder who apple will blame when their driverless cars crash; the passenger?
Well, not the press like Musk does.
More a sign of weakness than strength (Score:3)
The "dieselgate" scandal was (and in some way still is) a huge thing for VW; it really hurt them financially and reputation-wise.
(Somehow the other car manufacturers - who all gamed the system but in a somewhat less blatantly criminal fashion - managed to escape).
Since everyone else has given a stout "fuck off" to Apple, and their own vehicle development program is in the tank, then this leaves this unlikely alliance of the "weak", (note: both companies have enormous capabilities & resources, and lots of cash).
However, both companies also have strong, and strongly-different, cultures, big egos in management and complex behind-the-scenes politics; this won't go anywhere....
The elephant in the room (Score:3)
Would you climb into a self-driving car that's programmed by a company that cheated with their programming on EPA standards to make more money? I wouldn't either...
Unlike BMW and Mercedes, VW is willing to take a bath on the draconian contract terms that Apple is clearly expecting any partner on this project to take. And they're hoping that Apple can give them back the tech cachet they need.