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Sleek UI and hardware is nice, but for autonomous vehicles AI is essential. You can have the best car in the world in other respects, but without AI it's not se

Sleek UI and hardware is nice, but for autonomous vehicles AI is essential. You can have the best car in the world in other respects, but without AI it's not self-driving. Apple hasn't shown that it's particularly good at AI or mapping. Siri and Apple Maps are distant runner-ups. If it weren't for name brand awareness, I doubt anyone would be paying attention to Apple's self-driving project versus the field of competitors. Apple may have enough money to brute force their way to a spot in the rankings, but it hardly seems like a natural fit for them.

toasterlovin 8y ago
We are a long way off from 100% autonomous cars. In the meantime, human-car interaction is ripe for improvement. And regarding Apple Maps and Siri: we'll see what the next few years holds. It's always useful to keep in mind that Google had a huge head start. There's a difference between being incompetent and being behind. Apple is rolling out new maps this fall; we'll see how they do. Remember, there was once a time when Apple didn't know how to do web services. I think the last few years has shown that they figured out whatever it was they needed to figure out. Generally speaking, there probably isn't another company that is better than Apple at engineering management. Google and Amazon may be better in some areas, but they're probably also worse in others. Remember, this is a company with the best mobile processors in the world—by a long shot—despite not having even been in the processor business 10 years ago. They also deployed a brand new file system to a billion devices with basically no issues.
- vatueil 8y ago
  We're talking Apple's self-driving car project, though. It's in the title. There's no indication Apple is trying to get into non-self-driving cars. Nobody said Level 5 (100% autonomy) is necessary, but presumably they're at least aiming for substantial autonomy, e.g. Level 4 as others are pursuing. I'm not sure what you're referring to with regards to Apple web services. People outside the Apple ecosystem are not using iCloud, and even many Mac users prefer alternatives. Google did have a huge head start on AI and maps, true, but we're not grading on effort here.
adrianN 8y ago
If push comes to shove they can always buy the AI from a third party like Bosch.
deleted 8y ago
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toasterlovin 8y ago

We are a long way off from 100% autonomous cars. In the meantime, human-car interaction is ripe for improvement. And regarding Apple Maps and Siri: we'll see what the next few years holds. It's always useful to keep in mind that Google had a huge head start. There's a difference between being incompetent and being behind. Apple is rolling out new maps this fall; we'll see how they do. Remember, there was once a time when Apple didn't know how to do web services. I think the last few years has shown that they figured out whatever it was they needed to figure out. Generally speaking, there probably isn't another company that is better than Apple at engineering management. Google and Amazon may be better in some areas, but they're probably also worse in others. Remember, this is a company with the best mobile processors in the world—by a long shot—despite not having even been in the processor business 10 years ago. They also deployed a brand new file system to a billion devices with basically no issues.

vatueil 8y ago
We're talking Apple's self-driving car project, though. It's in the title. There's no indication Apple is trying to get into non-self-driving cars. Nobody said Level 5 (100% autonomy) is necessary, but presumably they're at least aiming for substantial autonomy, e.g. Level 4 as others are pursuing. I'm not sure what you're referring to with regards to Apple web services. People outside the Apple ecosystem are not using iCloud, and even many Mac users prefer alternatives. Google did have a huge head start on AI and maps, true, but we're not grading on effort here.

adrianN 8y ago

If push comes to shove they can always buy the AI from a third party like Bosch.

deleted 8y ago

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