Bikeguide.org - Bike maintenance for BMX'ers
The Street => The Lounge => Topic started by: G on August 07, 2015, 02:43:06 PM
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So Apple has been hiring a shit load of automotive engineers and there is speculation about what they are doing... well I have a theory and I want to get it down early, so when I am proved right in 5 years time I will have some proof to my claim of "told you so"...
So, everyone hates public transport because it is full of psychos/muggers/stinky-mad-women/farters/leary-old-men/flashers etc.
The vast majority of people dont really give that much of a shit about cars. You can see this by simply looking at the vehicles on the road. Who the fuck buys a Juke or a Fiat500x or any of those other hideous things I see on the road all the time. They just want a comfy safe place to sit and use their phone, hopefully without getting caught or crashing.
So here is what Apple are going to do.
You (and I obviously dont mean you here, but all the millions of people living in the suburbs who drive to Malls and offices with parking) will buy a CarPod. This will be a very stylish little caravan type thing with your choice of seats that turn into beds and telly screens and curtains and all sorts of other customisable shit. It will have a modest battery kept topped up by a solar panel on the roof, that can power AC or heating and top up your phone or whatever.
This pod will have little extendable legs underneath to keep it up off the ground and will cost you just a few thousand dollars.
When you want to go somewhere, you will take out your iphone (or speak into your iwatch if anyone ever buys one) and say "Hey pod, I need to be at xxxxx by 5pm" (obviously you may already have booked this appointment in your calendar so no need to say anything).
Apple's software will work out when you need to leave based on traffic etc and tell you to get in your carpod sometime before the necessary departure time, and the AC or heating will already have got the inside a nice temperature for you. Meanwhile it will allocate a "trolley" which will be a big flat four wheel thing like a Tesla drivetrain and battery pack arranged as a big flat platform. This "trolley" will arrive at your carpod, roll underneath, tell the pod to retract its legs and the two will dock together securely like a shipping container on a truck.
The trolley will then whisk you off to your destination.
If your destination is a few miles away, then it will just drop your pod off in a car park and fuck off to charge itself or move someone else's pod. If your destination is half way across the country then it will take you as far as it can, at which point another trolley will be ready to take over.
You wont own a trolley, just pay for your miles. You will never have to think about fuel/charging, tyre wear, servicing, punctures, tax etc etc.
So imagine you live in the Suburbs of Chicago and need to go to Buffalo for a 9am meeting.
Instead of going to the airport the day before, flying there, going to a hotel, getting up early and then heading to the meeting, you just climb into your pod at bed-time the night before, lay back your seat and go to sleep. While you are asleep, a trolley comes and picks you up, and a series of trolleys takes you to Buffalo while you sleep. When your iphone wakes you up in the morning you are "parked" outside a hotel which through an agreement with Apple lets you use an empty room to have a shower and get dressed, you eat breakfast there and get back in your pod which takes you to the meeting.
So instead of being stuck on a plane with what can only be classed as "other cunts" you have a nice snooze in your own little pod that has your favourite snacks and comfy slippers etc..
Pods can also be sent to take children to school/hockey-practice/friend's-houses or to pick up shopping etc
This all obviously needs a few changes in the law (luckily Apple have a lot of lobbying power) like being able to sleep in a bed while travelling without needing a seatbelt (big airbags instead) and being allowed to park a "pod" in the street, but it's all pretty minor.
As battery and motor technology improves Apple can update the trolley to have a longer range etc, but this wont matter to you. Apple will make money for every mile you travel, and no doubt be able to offer new pods with better soundproofing, satellite internet, showers and toilets etc as demand dictates.
TLDR: Apple iCar will be like shipping containers for people. Will you buy one? (pretty sure I would)
:)
G.
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pneumatic tubes or bust
in the future people will be astonished at the kind of choices we've had, at the different styles, the fact that we were allowed to steer/brake/accelerate on our own... will roads disappear to the extent that horse trails have?
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Will everyone get lost using maps?
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I don't know you had me till you mentioned the trolley system which seems too in the future.
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Will everyone get lost using maps?
step 1. buy icar
step 2. download google maps
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I could definitely see Apple making an Uber but with self driven cars though.
They've been sitting on A LOT of money while churning out run of the mill products for the last decade. Apple plays the future game so saving up for something like this would definitely be sensible.
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I think your ascertation of the situation is a little too individualized. I feel like it's going to be intended for Los Gatos and Palo Alto apple employees. I can imagine them having no separation from life and work. A little Tesla bus that is programmed to find its employees at their homes or coffee shops and take them back to the apple campus.
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I think your ascertation of the situation is a little too individualized. I feel like it's going to be intended for Los Gatos and Palo Alto apple employees. I can imagine them having no separation from life and work. A little Tesla bus that is programmed to find its employees at their homes or coffee shops and take them back to the apple campus.
Google etc already have buses to pick workers up with coffee etc on board.
My prediction would be based on selling to middle class families and young professionals. Your average person/family/couple in these categories probably spends $3k+ a year on car related stuff (depreciation, interest, servicing, insurance, fuel etc) as a conservative estimate. Apple could have a big slice of this, but only if the product can COMPLETELY replace the car. So you could probably book a more powerful trolley with a trailer if you need to haul stuff or even a full size truck type thing if you are moving house!
For people who don't have a driveway you could probably skip owning a pod and just book one for a journey, and it would come from the same hub that services the trolleys having been thoroughly cleaned by some sort of robot.
This is all technology that is 99% there, it really wouldn't be that much of a leap to make it happen now, but on the timescales of the Auto industry now would be the time to start if it was going to launch in 2020...
:)
G.
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It's a big step from making computer boxes and running an online music shop, to fundamentally changing transport and car ownership. That said I don't think you're wrong, but I don't think they'll succeed.
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The real question is how to sell an updated model every year?
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Sounds about right G. In the future owning a car will be a thing of the past, you'll pay a monthly contract like a phone and get picked up as and when.
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Sounds about right G. In the future owning a car will be a thing of the past, you'll pay a monthly contract like a phone and get picked up as and when.
Can't see that happening here, at least not to replace the automobile completely. Car culture and driving is huge in America. I'd love to use that service but I could never go without a car.
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This pretty much sums it up
http://www.theonion.com/graphic/features-of-the-apple-car-38023
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I hate owning a car so this would be kind of cool. On the other hand I can't help but think that structuring our society around a technology like this would cause us to live even more isolated lives and detach ourselves from each other even more.
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Yes it will quite possibly make people more insular (though I think you could also argue that with the owner not needing to give their attention to the road they could converse more freely with their passengers and if there is only one person in a car it isnt very sociable anyway) but Apple wont give a shit about that.
And I'm not saying that this will take over straight away. There will still be people who love driving and car culture. But even if you own a sweet Porsche you may not want to drive it everyday on a boring commute stuck in stop go traffic, when you could be having a cuppa and watching new Stampy videos on a full size computer in an autonomous car.
BUT; what will also happen, is that as autonomous vehicles become more common, the pressure will rise on people who want to drive themselves. Every car crash will become headline news and insurance for self-driving will sky rocket as insurance for autonomous cars plummets. Sooner or later there will be a move to ban people from driving themselves on the road unless a computer is able to monitor your driving and stop you getting into trouble.
The key difference here, is that while Google are looking at a Taxi type system, I think Apple will do something like what I describe because people want to "own" a car, that is theirs. They dont want to sit in a pool of vomit (or even be able to imagine that they are sitting where a pool of vomit was cleaned up from), but for most people what's under the floor and behind the dash is just an annoyance.
So by buying the space you sit in, you can control your environment completely, put in your favourite cushions, hell, you can have pot plants and maybe even a parrot or a cat in there if you want. If you are a workman you can have a pod with a little workshop in there, or all your tools. Get delivered to the job site in the morning and have access to everything you need without worrying about maintenance and fuel etc.
Apple can keep selling new pods in the same way that IKEA keep selling new furniture.
Pod1 has something like basic car seats with belts etc but you can spin the front seats round and have a little table between you and your passengers and do work etc.
Pod1s has a bigger boot/trunk and better wifi
Pod2 has seats that fold really flat and some new seat-belt innovation that makes this legal. Satellite internet for always on connection etc
Pod3 (launched after heavy lobbying of government) has fully fold flat beds and advanced airbags that make it OK to sleep without a seatbelt on. Better visibility and a viewing dome on the roof.
Pod4 intruduces a whole new level of comfort with seats that are more like home sofa's and sofabeds.
Pod5 introduces compatibility with the new longer wheelbase trolleys that allow a longer range and have hydropneumatic suspension for a more comfortable ride.
Pod6 uses innovative packaging design to make the most of the new longer trolleys to give more leg room, bigger boot space and room for a full size double bed and curtains etc...
Pod7 has a high enough roof to have a mirror ball and disco lighting.
And all the while they can do camper van versions, extendable ones, different sizes of trades vehicle bodies for locksmiths, auto mechanics, air conditioning repairers, kitchen fitters; burger vans, ice-cream trucks etc etc
They sell new phones every year just on the basis of a speed and screen increase, could do the same with pods where they can power more entertainment systems, or have massage chairs or any one of a million "upgrades" that you might have in your home.
One issue is that initially, there will be times when the computer might get stuck or confused.
When this happens, they will have "remote drive" where a guy in India can take remote control of the trolley to get it to a safe location or continue driving you until it clears the difficult bit or a replacement trolley can get to you.
If you put together what is out there already. Google's car, the military's autonomous army trucks and drones, tesla's cars then it is all very possible. You can roll it out in California initially and get a huge take up. If you are heading out of state then you can rent a car, and if you cover the whole state that would be "fine" for a hell of a lot of people. You can sell probably 5 pods for every trolley you make and get a huge adoption (probably as fast as you can make them). Then roll it out across the whole west coast, then east and finally virtually nationwide within 5 years. Canada would be easy, Most of Europe (outside actual city centres) would be easy, and by then you can have figured out a solution for people who dont have parking spaces. Probably a folding pod that is only a couple of feet long when not in use and can be stored in your yard with its own tiny wheels that are just enough to get it out on the street for trolley docking..
:)
G.
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It's not a natural enough progression. Self driving cars would need to be deeply established in our culture for this to happen, which is still years off. It's definitely feasible, but I don't think it will be Apple who implement it as you say. Once self driving cars are fully integrated (Oxford university are working on one with I think Nissan or Toyota, used to drive round my old work and local area, was driving on the roads 2+ years ago, so it isn't just Google who are pushing this) it would still be a generation before what you suggest will be marketable.
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I can definitely see this happening, but I wouldn't be too stoked on it. I enjoy driving quite a bit, excluding of course the stop and go when I'm commuting to the office (108 km drive). Although one of the guys on my crew is totally ready for this to happen. But then, he's the kind of guy who doesn't do any maintenance on vehicles he's owned, never swapped from summer tires to winters, etc.
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How are execs going to let you know you have a shit pod and are not as good as they are? Apple will do the gold pod?
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ugh, well first off thanks for that nightmare vision of the future which is worse because people will run to it arms out stretched especially if there's an apple logo on it and give me convenience or give me death, right?
i think it will take more than five years and many more to get to the jetson's standard of living. i imagine the rather more lame 'johnny cabs' from the running man to be the actual result, besides, i think you underestimate the london cab drivers union.
i think i saw a headline (but didn't check the story) of hoverboards being tested by pro skaters
now this is the one, if hoverboards come out before automated cars the future could be so many shades of rad, why sit in a box being shunted around when you can travel in such expressive style
people always wrongly assume that the best super power is flight* but if that's what the people want, then maybe it could be more conducive than a four day working week. world peace, here we come
people would love getting out of bed, obesity would be a thing of the past, recreational drugs obsolete and if it could be fuelled by some recycling element, then it really would be the shit
*it's infinite burritos and why do you need to fly if you can ride a bike?
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The Lexus hoverboard was something that's been around. Super cooled superconductors that lock a magnetic field. The skatepark they built was a track underneath. They could only hover over this 30cm wide. Not a use anywhere McFly board.
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That will not happen within the next 5-10 years.
I do see Apple trying to make their own self driving car, that of the likes of Google.
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ugh, well first off thanks for that nightmare vision of the future which is worse because people will run to it arms out stretched especially if there's an apple logo on it and give me convenience or give me death, right?
i think it will take more than five years and many more to get to the jetson's standard of living. i imagine the rather more lame 'johnny cabs' from the running man to be the actual result, besides, i think you underestimate the london cab drivers union.
i think i saw a headline (but didn't check the story) of hoverboards being tested by pro skaters
now this is the one, if hoverboards come out before automated cars the future could be so many shades of rad, why sit in a box being shunted around when you can travel in such expressive style
people always wrongly assume that the best super power is flight* but if that's what the people want, then maybe it could be more conducive than a four day working week. world peace, here we come
people would love getting out of bed, obesity would be a thing of the past, recreational drugs obsolete and if it could be fuelled by some recycling element, then it really would be the shit
*it's infinite burritos and why do you need to fly if you can ride a bike?
Initially, they will be expensive and they WILL be a status symbol, but of course there will be a similar urge to upgrade every year, so the MD will be using one first, and a few years later when the MD has a Pod4 the clerical staff will be picking up used Pod1's...
Hoverboards are a lot further out. If you fancy a hoverboard then you should try a onewheel:- http://rideonewheel.com/
Had a go on one of these in June and am probably going to have to get one sooner or later. It would be very easy to imagine you are riding a hoverboard when you are on it. Lean forward and go effortlessly, very smooth, and super easy to learn and control. I got on and was doing 15 miles an hour feeling like I had almost complete control within 5 seconds.
Yes, for a journey of 2 or 3 miles its ideal, but you wouldn't want to go 100+ on anything like that.
A LOT of people in California (and Texas and Arizona and Nevada and lots of other states) are commuting on freeways for 10, 20, 30, 50 miles even, and its regularly 30 degrees. I love cycling, but you will never see significant numbers of people cycling for the majority of their journeys.
And this is before you consider, disabled people and the elderly etc. I would bet that a lot of Google and Apple exec's have parents that are 70+ and still driving and it scares them. Get them into a nice safe autonomous car and it buys several years of independence and quality of life...
By 2030 I reckon they will have banned people from driving their own cars on public roads unless their is a computer double checking what they are doing..
:)
G.
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Let's not forget that by the time this technology is widely adopted a lot or dare I say, the majority of jobs will be done by robots and algorithms. There won't be long commutes to non existent jobs.
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I consider this very unlikely. People usually speculate videly about Apple's product development and then it turns out to be almost nothing spectacular. My guess is that it would be a sort of iPad for the car that also work as a dashboard and have some minor car control abilities.
The whole concept of pod cars seem far fetched and nothing a sane business consultant would recommend looking into. I also cannot see this working for family trips or (most alarmingly) BMX roadtrips
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I can see a subscription based self driving car thing coming around. Pay a monthly fee, get a car near/at your home. Get driven to work, decide to go for a beer, end up in a different city, get a car back home. It doesn't matter that its a different car because they're all the same.
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So a self driving taxi, you're saying?
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Don't be ridiculous. He means a car that you don't own but can hire to drive you places whenever you need it and when you reach your destination it moves on to the next nearest person who needs a ride. There would be many of them and all look alike. I'm thinking yellow would be a good color for them. They could even make it so you can summon one of these cars using your phone.
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Don't be ridiculous. He means a car that you don't own but can hire to drive you places whenever you need it and when you reach your destination it moves on to the next nearest person who needs a ride. There would be many of them and all look alike. I'm thinking yellow would be a good color for them. They could even make it so you can summon one of these cars using your phone.
Too futuristic. I don't see that happening in my life time!
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So a self driving taxi, you're saying?
Exactly that. Its what they'll be used for initially...
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Let's not forget that by the time this technology is widely adopted a lot or dare I say, the majority of jobs will be done by robots and algorithms. There won't be long commutes to non existent jobs.
People have been saying this for decades, centuries almost. All mechanisation/automation ever does is move jobs. A hundred years ago, people worked in mills and mines, now they do customer sevice, programming, service etc, in another hundred years who knows, maybe we'll be able to have more teachers, artists, inventors, nurses etc even if people dont need to work anymore they will still want to go places for leisure. But we aren't talking that long anyway. Look at the internet. In about 10-15 years it went from "what the fuck is the internet?" to "I cant believe there is no fucking internet here!".
Once there is the option for browsing the internet on the highway (instead of concentrating on traffic) on that boring drive to visit your Mother/Grandmother/Brother/Sister or whatever, or to just send the pod to pick up your Auntie from the airport or to go out and get drunk and have the pod take you home and you can even just doze off in it. Then driving yourself will quickly seem "fucking stupid".
I consider this very unlikely. People usually speculate videly about Apple's product development and then it turns out to be almost nothing spectacular. My guess is that it would be a sort of iPad for the car that also work as a dashboard and have some minor car control abilities.
The whole concept of pod cars seem far fetched and nothing a sane business consultant would recommend looking into. I also cannot see this working for family trips or (most alarmingly) BMX roadtrips
If it was just an "add on" for existing cars then there wouldn't be the same need to hire shit loads of automotive engineers.
Why would this not work for family trips? No reason the pod cant be big enough for a whole family or group of riders, and no reason you cant hire a second trolley to follow you around with a cargo pod mounted in the same way you would hire a Uhaul truck or trailer.
I can see a subscription based self driving car thing coming around. Pay a monthly fee, get a car near/at your home. Get driven to work, decide to go for a beer, end up in a different city, get a car back home. It doesn't matter that its a different car because they're all the same.
Sure there will be some market for a taxi version like Google are working on, but people have got used to their home comforts in their own car. People want a box of tissues, blanket, sweets, phone charger, spare shoes, a 9mm etc on hand without actually carrying all that crap around with them.
Suppose Apple launched this tomorrow.
Basic pods start at $10k and go up to $50k or even $100k for a sumptuously appointed 6 seater. No insurance, tax servicing or licence needed. Travel is $0.25/mile. OR you can pay a monthly fee like you do for a phone, say $500 a month (for a base model) with a basic mileage allowance of 800 miles or something.
Are you really saying that they wouldn't have people queuing up? And the profit on something like this would be staggering. With a high rate of utilisation on trolleys and pods being very simple to produce they could easily have a 100% mark-up which would make the traditional car industry look very poor.
:)
G.
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Hopefully this stuff will be the first nail in the coffin for fossil fuels too.
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...and the two will dock together securely ...
I just hope it's better than the connectors of iPhone past. I could see it. I hope they're boxy cause aerodynamics are irrelevant for some reason.. I miss those days.
I just hope Apple/Android Car control platforms come before that. I want to make an app for the NA market that will only run one reverse light at a time, effectively doubling the life of your reverse lights. $1.99 (we double up here)
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Hopefully this stuff will be the first nail in the coffin for fossil fuels too.
How did you think that would come about? There would be a huge demand on electricity infrastructure. The famous Thames plant is powered by??
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I decided to do a quick google search and the sources states between a dozen-several hundred engineers are on the project. There have also been meetings between Apple and car manufactors.
It could perhaps be that Apple is trying to reinvent the wheel, but I doubt that they want to make the car completely by themselves. Sure, they have the money, but buying a plant and setting everything up is still a huge (HUGE) risk. Perhaps a iMercedes?
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Hopefully this stuff will be the first nail in the coffin for fossil fuels too.
How did you think that would come about? There would be a huge demand on electricity infrastructure. The famous Thames plant is powered by??
I was referring to increased use of renewable energy sources, Solar, Wind, Water, Geothermal etc, hopefully they'll be come a lot more prevalent in the coming years.
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I decided to do a quick google search and the sources states between a dozen-several hundred engineers are on the project. There have also been meetings between Apple and car manufactors.
It could perhaps be that Apple is trying to reinvent the wheel, but I doubt that they want to make the car completely by themselves. Sure, they have the money, but buying a plant and setting everything up is still a huge (HUGE) risk. Perhaps a iMercedes?
That's where I'd put my money on. Cell phones are seemingly a sure bet to be at the central hub of the mystical 'Internet of Things'. The fact that legislation is keeping your phone out of reach in the car makes it one of the few places where people have some 'distance' from their phone. This is unacceptable for Apple!
Anyways, if you were Apple, looking to get a further play in the IoT market, why not go for the most expensive thing besides a home? Home automation stuff seems to be a bit of a risky play, because the pace of change is too high. My parents house fingerprint deadbolts from a big company on their doors about 7 years ago. They don't work anymore, never really did - they won't be gambling on new tech anytime soon. I've read a few things about these Home Automation things fading out of relevance as fast they appear.
Assuming that home ownership is in decline (in urban NA anyway, renting making the most economic sense in these times) people just aren't investing enough into their rented apartments. But a brain in every manufacturers car, which could be an expectation within a few years (if not already) that plays nice with your phone, that might just be something Automakers would willingly let Neue Big Brother handle.
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I bet it's just IOT related stuff...
The potential for added revenue by adding internet to your cars is MASSIVE!
I've been saying for years that someone needs to build an app that uses GPS and Satelite Radio to create targeted adds for people riding in vehicles. Can you imagine getting done listening to the latest Brittney Spears song on Sirius and then hearing "looks like you're running low on fuel, stop in to Quick Trip and fill your tank and get one dollar off all specialty coffee drinks. We're just 2 miles ahead on the right off exit 15. Stop in today."
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I bet it's just IOT related stuff...
The potential for added revenue by adding internet to your cars is MASSIVE!
I've been saying for years that someone needs to build an app that uses GPS and Satelite Radio to create targeted adds for people riding in vehicles. Can you imagine getting done listening to the latest Brittney Spears song on Sirius and then hearing "looks like you're running low on fuel, stop in to Quick Trip and fill your tank and get one dollar off all specialty coffee drinks. We're just 2 miles ahead on the right off exit 15. Stop in today."
'Wow it looks like that last ad increased your blood pressure - you sure hate your corporatised monetised existence don't you? Why not nip round to Ed's guns, also off exit 15, where Ed is a running Top Yourself TuesdayTM, just $50 for a cheap chinese hand gun, one bullet and a quiet parking space out back'
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Let's be honest.
Look at what is at the forefront of automotive technology and it's guaranteed Apple is going to steal it than make it popular somehow. They're pretty the elvis of our time. What eminent is to rap, Apple is to whatever it is they do.
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It's gonna be a HUD. Apparently they have some camera mounted vans driving around California, so maybe that HUD will have pop-ups that show you where to get specialty coffee drinks or whatever.
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Let's be honest.
Look at what is at the forefront of automotive technology and it's guaranteed Apple is going to steal it than make it popular somehow. They're pretty the elvis of our time. What eminent is to rap, Apple is to whatever it is they do.
Stealing is such a weak hate against Apple. Sure they boost up the Apple propaganda with the whole innovative mantra and they weren't the first to do certain items. Regardless Steve Jobs made shit happen in ways very few people in our lifetime ever has. What use is some good idea if all it leads to is products in the clearance rack at CompUSA?
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You know what would make Mr. French's scenario better? If an amazon x apple drone came and treated you like a package.
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Let's be honest.
Look at what is at the forefront of automotive technology and it's guaranteed Apple is going to steal it than make it popular somehow. They're pretty the elvis of our time. What eminent is to rap, Apple is to whatever it is they do.
Stealing is such a weak hate against Apple. Sure they boost up the Apple propaganda with the whole innovative mantra and they weren't the first to do certain items. Regardless Steve Jobs made shit happen in ways very few people in our lifetime ever has. What use is some good idea if all it leads to is products in the clearance rack at CompUSA?
Who said I hated Apple? I typed that all on an iPhone. theyre probably just designing best for your vehicle just like for the home.
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I swear I saw this announced 2 days ago, unless it was a dream.
Edit: Yep, http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/aug/14/apple-self-driving-car-project-titan-sooner-than-expected
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Hopefully this stuff will be the first nail in the coffin for fossil fuels too.
How did you think that would come about? There would be a huge demand on electricity infrastructure. The famous Thames plant is powered by??
Electric cars have the potential to make electricity supply much easier. At present we have to have enough capacity to supply peak demand, think superbowl commercial break and everyone sticks the oven/kettle/toaster on while the TV and AC are already on etc. Electric cars connected to "charge" can feed back for a few minutes to smooth this out and supply the extra needed instead of dozens of power plants being spooled up in anticipation.
At present, wind turbines are often shut down at quiet times because they are much cheaper and quicker to take off line than any other form of mechanical generator, we then have to pay NOT to get electricity, this power could be fed to charging cars as long as we have a smart grid. Nuclear power plants are the worst for this inability to be flexible.
It is also amazing how the Nuclear power lobby has "spun" this weakness of Nuclear and strength of wind into an anti-wind argument and made all this shit up about "base load", when that really isnt the main issue.
:)
G.
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A few minutes? I want storage to be a reality soon. Having a tesla home storage device and an electric car would be supplemental and I hope that it helps satisfy demand and reduce the demand for energy production.
I wonder the fraction of fossil fuel energy transportation is responsible.
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The Pod concept seems a bit too far fetched. I just don't think with how much government regulation is involved that something like that will be easily approved unless the technology is failsafe.
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The Pod concept seems a bit too far fetched. I just don't think with how much government regulation is involved that something like that will be easily approved unless the technology is failsafe.
You may be right. Unfortunately public fear will be the biggest hurdle, which is ridiculous in many ways. The system we have now (people driving cars and trucks etc) is by no means "failsafe" and we have thousands of fatalities and serious injuries (not to mention property damage) every year as a result.
eg. https://youtu.be/C1aSvoIpVss
However, with Google and Apple both trying to produce autonomous vehicles, plus military interest, there will be a hell of a lot of lobbying power stacked up on it's side. In terms of the docking between the trolley and the "pod" that is unlikely to be a problem. We already have a huge amount of heavy freight moved in containers in a very similar way, so it should be easy to argue that this would just be an alternative design.
:)
G.
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Not that this is exactly what G said, but I'd say it's a step in that direction thinking wise.
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/11/02/453975501/could-a-tiny-mobile-studio-solve-your-housing-crisis
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So Apple has been hiring a shit load of automotive engineers and there is speculation about what they are doing... well I have a theory and I want to get it down early, so when I am proved right in 5 years time I will have some proof to my claim of "told you so"...
:)
G.
Unless our beloved forum gets wiped again and all those to-be age old threads disappear into never-never-land.
:)