The Apple Car Thread

[Omnis]

If the Apple car winds up looking anything like that, I will personally go and kick Newson's ass. Marc to Marc.

 

[Robin]

However, I do think car design needs a kick in the arse, and Apple could deliver that kick. It interests me greatly that Newson's first and only car design so far has more than a hint of Apple about it, long before he ever worked there - the Ford 021C concept of 1999:

It's a compact-sized, four-seat sedan. The powertrain is nothing special by today's standards - a 1.6-litre Zetec with an automatic gearbox - but there are some really neat design touches. It definitely looks like a concept of the 1990s now (though given modern design focuses on aggression, a bit of 90s light-heartedness is welcome) but it remains one of my all-time favourite concepts.

Agreed, that was a very memorable concept car, like what a modern Model T would be like. It does have a whiff of Apple about it but I suspect Apple are not going to go down the 'how a child draws a car' route and come up with something bolder and more surprising.

 

[Pseudopod]

yeah exactly, technology has improved but battery has not

Batteries have improved immensely.

 

[Beeblebrox237]

I wonder if there will come a day that cars run on urine. Lord knows there's an endless supply.

Are you taking the piss?



Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

 

[Robin]

Batteries have improved immensely.

They really haven't, there hasn't been any significant developments in battery technology since the invention of Lithium Ion and nearly all the gains that have been made in efficiency have been due to the advancement of everything other than the battery.

 

[homeforsummer]

but I suspect Apple are not going to go down the 'how a child draws a car' route and come up with something bolder and more surprising.

Yeah, for me it's more an example of how Apple might use colours and materials, and how they might try and reduce the user interface to a bare minimum, than how the car itself would actually look.

 

[TVR27]

1. A Apple car would need forced updates.

2. It would need to be recharged every 10 miles.

3. It will come in any colour you like as long as its white.

4. It will cost a lot of money !

5. It will only be able to take apple parts.

6. The GPS will never work.

 

[homeforsummer]

We get it people, it's cool and edgy to take the piss out of a company you don't like because reasons. But the Apple memes were barely funny the first time someone posted them in this thread, let alone the umpteenth.

But while we're on the subject:

1. A Apple car would need forced updates.

I still haven't updated to iOS 8 on my iPhone yet, let alone iOS 9. No forcing here. Not even any annoying pop-ups suggesting I do so like... I dunno, the one I get every single day for Windows 10.

2. It would need to be recharged every 10 miles.

My work Macbook lasts almost a full working day without being recharged. My home laptop about 30 minutes.

3. It will come in any colour you like as long as its white.

>

I'm not an Apple nerd, but I do own an iPhone. A 5c, in fact, in green.

4. It will cost a lot of money !

I spend less on my phone contract, with phone included, than I do buying car magazines each month.

5. It will only be able to take apple parts.

Because Vauxhall and Ford parts are readily interchangeable...

6. The GPS will never work.

I've not got lost yet...

If people insist on posting tedious Apple memes rather than contributing to the discussion, is there any chance they could be original?

 

[05XR8]

No doubt the car will come with a removable ipad. Most likely all gauges will be on said ipad and you'll be able to switch modes/apps accordingly. Where things will get interesting is, if anyone wish to take it to a motor racing circuit. Surely, motoracing would be the last thing Apple are into. Thing is, Apps for downloading circuit times and sharing with friends (I haven't bought an apple product since my iphone 4) may soon flow but, is this something Apple would embrace?

The car isnt built yet for us to see but, the first thing some people already have planned is to see how much faster it can go.

 

[Pseudopod]

They really haven't, there hasn't been any significant developments in battery technology since the invention of Lithium Ion and nearly all the gains that have been made in efficiency have been due to the advancement of everything other than the battery.

They have more than doubled in capacity (watts per gram) since they became commercially viable. I didn't manage to find statistics for the msot recent decade, but it did so going from the early 90s to mid 00s. Pretty sure the battery in my early 2001 phone has significantly less capacity than the one in my S4 too, without being significantly larger in volume.

How huge an improvement this is, is of course dependent on what you compare it to. Compared to the rapid development of cell phones it's not *that* fast. Compared to how much the efficiency of ICEs have been over the last decade?

Tesla themselves expect roughly 5% increase in battery capacity per year, on average.

 

[Robin]

They have more than doubled in capacity (watts per gram) since they became commercially viable. I didn't manage to find statistics for the msot recent decade, but it did so going from the early 90s to mid 00s. Pretty sure the battery in my early 2001 phone has significantly less capacity than the one in my S4 too, without being significantly larger in volume.

How huge an improvement this is, is of course dependent on what you compare it to. Compared to the rapid development of cell phones it's not *that* fast. Compared to how much the efficiency of ICEs have been over the last decade?

Tesla themselves expect roughly 5% increase in battery capacity per year, on average.

Yes, the batteries might now be 3000mah rather than 500 back in the late 90's but I'm talking about the underlying chemical makeup of the technology and it's the single biggest factor holding the world back from huge increases in run time. Lithium Ion is still Lithium Ion.

It was a feet in itself to go from Nickel Cadmium to Nickel Metal Hydride to what we have now but it has been around 20 years since that last big leap. Yes there are replacement technologies in the works and they are doing stuff with solid state batteries but commercially viable alternatives are years off and hydrogen power has a better shot. Some have actually prototyped commercial electronics which could run on hydrogen for days.

The main reason why that added capacity actually makes the big difference it does is because the power requirements of what they are powering has halved. Think about how much less heat electronics generate these days also advances in materials have made things much much lighter. So yes if you compare it to how fast everything else is developing it's really slow.

If an electric car was built out of pig iron and used 1990's levels of efficiency the mah capacity would only contribute a small amount to the range yet loose a few KG's and it could double. We need to see around 25% range increases coming from the battery alone with no other improvements and it might be years before we see those kind of jumps.

The basic lithium ion battery that we use today hasn’t changed dramatically since Sony first started selling them to consumers in 1991. Economies of scale and various tweaks along the way have helped improve efficiency about 10 percent a year, says Chamberlain, but that still makes lithium ion a relative tortoise in a world more accustomed to progress in Moore’s Law-style leaps. It’s no wonder we’re all hungry for a major breakthrough.

 

[Nessy]

Thought i'd do a rough sketch of how I think an Apple car could look. It's called the 'Apple-Kart', and is a 2-seater drive by wire car (possibly), which allows the wheel to be left or right hand drive. The black dots in the roof are cameras (I suppose). It's still very much a work in progress.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Apple will sell a lot of these simply because Apple makes them and we all know how many cell phones they part with every year.

 

[Kryption]

Would they use iPhones for brake pads?

 

[homeforsummer]

It's still very much a work in progress.

Keep 'em coming! That looks great.

The sad thing is, I'm not sure a steering wheel will even be required - most signs are pointing to something autonomous.

 

[Swagger897]

Would they use iPhones for brake pads?

You're talking about that 911 dude from CarThrottle aren't you...

 

[Nish]

Thought i'd do a rough sketch of how I think an Apple car could look. It's called the 'Apple-Kart', and is a 2-seater drive by wire car (possibly), which allows the wheel to be left or right hand drive. The black dots in the roof are cameras (I suppose). It's still very much a work in progress.

Reminds me of an Apple'd version of your profile picture

 

[Robin]

So the head of FIAT wants Apple to partner with them to build the car because, get this, he owns a lot of Apple stuff

http://mashable.com/2016/03/02/fiat-help-build-apple-car/#WlNMxbqPuiqy

By that rationale as long as I buy enough of a companies stuff they will hire me! 💡

I swear some people live on cloud nine, also of all the companies Apple would partner with it wouldn't be FIAT... they want the thing to actually work ..... just kidding.

 

[Swagger897]

So the head of FIAT wants Apple to partner with them to build the car because, get this, he owns a lot of Apple stuff

http://mashable.com/2016/03/02/fiat-help-build-apple-car/#WlNMxbqPuiqy

By that rationale as long as I buy enough of a companies stuff they will hire me! 💡

I swear some people live on cloud nine, also of all the companies Apple would partner with it wouldn't be FIAT... they want the thing to actually work ..... just kidding.

Well I mean I drew a picture of an R8 and Audi followed me....


So yeah, it does kinda work

 

[YSSMAN]

If Apple is going to partner with an American company to produce their cars, I think the most-obvious one is GM. Between the Volt and Bolt, and their early adoption of Apple's Siri Hands Free, it seems reasonably logical. If not, I'd bet on Honda or Toyota. Both have enough American-based design, engineering, and construction for Apple to say it is a "Designed in California" type product.

 

[Pupik]

While Apple seems to have a metric billion or twelve in the bank, I just don't see them building a vehicle entirely from scratch. They have no prior experience in the mechanical engineering and development of personal, self-propelled conveyances, from my understanding. They know a lot of what consumers want in small-scale portable devices and personal computers, and they'd have to make a huge leap of faith into merging the two ideas.

Would they do a joint venture? Yes, but there's a huge risk in starting from the ground-up, and I don't see investors thrilled about sinking 10 years of profits for "version 0.9" of their first automobile to be a disappointment. Every car manufacturer kind of starts out with a flop, and gets a lot right in the next model.

I could see some sort of autonomous vehicle designed in conjunction with some upstart, but some automaker with deep pockets might chip in for massive name recognition.

There's also the thought that Apple stays out of the idea...cars may very well be passé and encumbered with increasing regulations in the next few decades.

 

[Nessy]

After seeing the Tesla Model 3's interior in the Tesla thread the other day, it got me thinking about the Apple car. I did a sketch last year ^ of what I think an Apple car could look like, but didn't take it any further, well apart from this sketch with the lights on:



Anyway, I decided to do a drawing (fairly rough around the edges, I know) of the interior of my Apple Kart.
As @homeforsummer previously pointed out, due to the possible autonomous nature of the car, it might not have a steering wheel. So basically what I've done, is to try and take a slightly different approach to the idea of autonomous driving. The car still has what appears to be a steering wheel but it functions differently. The car would still be autonomous but you'd be able to override certain things (within reason).

The wheel itself would have about 10-15 degrees of steering, you'd use it for pulling over or when initiating an overtake (if the car allows under the circumstances). Because the wheel doesn't rotate that much, I've decided to add another function. The top of the wheel can be pulled on to slow the car down to a crawl (woah there horsey), or pushed forward to pick up the pace. The wheel could also just be used as a navigation tool like: tug the wheel left to take the next left etc etc.

I know there's probably several flaws with my idea, and there's a lot more for me to explain about them, but TBH I never have been very good at writing stuff down. If I get the chance, i'll try and do a few more sketches to help explain my idea better.

 

[05XR8]

Add: Iphone for steering, iPad for Navigation, Mac Book in each seat back and on passenger side.

 

[homeforsummer]

Neat idea. I suppose it's almost using the wheel like a clickwheel on an old iPod. More for binary functions than an analogue one, yet it's still a device that people would be familiar with and less disconcerting than no wheel at all.

 

[Nessy]

Neat idea. I suppose it's almost using the wheel like a clickwheel on an old iPod. More for binary functions than an analogue one, yet it's still a device that people would be familiar with and less disconcerting than no wheel at all.

Thanks.
That's pretty much the idea.

 

[GTPorsche]

The current issue of Car and Driver covered the 25 cars and trucks worth waiting for.

The 2020 Apple iMaybe (haha) was one of them. Doesn't look like they've made the article available online yet.

 

[Joey D]

So Autoblog put this on Facebook with the line "Could this be the Apple Car? Find out on 4/14." All I can think is that it looks like a 1980's Buick/Cadillac/Oldsmobile concept car.

 

[Tornado]

That looks startlingly like the kind of cars GM gave to the studio who made Demolition Man.

 

[Cobra2245]

Just skimmed through this and saw this pretty interesting.

I just got a Motor Trend magazine last week. So far, the article has said that there are talks of Apple teaming up with BMW (possibly) to make some sort of hybrid/electric car. The picture in the magazine suggested that it could be based off the BMW i3. It would be interesting to see what they come up with. And, although he has passed, Steve Jobs apparently had an interest in cars as well as computers (I am the same, kind of), so who knows what might have been left behind?

 

[Swagger897]

I thought wheel covers were a dead thing?