Apple joins Tesla in approval to test self-driving cars on California streets

[NCTraveler]

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has received a California permit to test autonomous cars. This action makes transparent Apple’s intentions to join Tesla and other automakers in the race to making self-driving technology a common feature on U.S. vehicles.

On Friday, April 15, the California Department of Motor Vehicles added Apple to its list of 29 other innovators who will be testing self-driving vehicles in the Golden State. The company will be using three 2015 Lexus RX 450h luxury hybrid sport utility vehicles during testing. The six drivers who have been given permission to conduct the testing must be present to disengage the autonomous-driving software if necessary.

The announcement that Apple will join the self-driving game comes after much speculation about the company’s self-driving initiatives. Up to this point, Apple has declined to acknowledge formally its autonomous technology R&D beyond an advisory letter to the NHTSA in December, 2016, which Apple used as an opportunity to offer input on the Federal Automated Vehicles Policy. If anything, the company has been evasive, with comments from Apple CEO Tim Cook such as, “It’s going to be Christmas Eve for a while,” which came in response to a query Apple’s intentions to invest in self-driving technology. According to the New York Times, he also told an investors group in October that Apple recognizes that “there are a lot of technologies that will either become available or will be able to revolutionize the car experience.”

https://www.teslarati.com/apple-approved-test-self-driving-car-california-streets/

[Alex4Martinez]

1. It may be inevitable, but it's probably not a good thing.

In the long run, this is the kind of development that small government free market types salivate over.

Rather than invest in public transit, they promote automobile dependency on, laughably, publicly funded roads.

Will my landscaper and housekeeper and nanny friends benefit from this new technology?

No, they'll be stuck in traffic stressing out while rich assholes in Teslas will be texting their stockbrokers and getting richer.

/rant

[NCTraveler]

2. Better for the environment. More safe.

Economically sound.

And your thoughts on public transportation don't make sense. They are not attachable in an argument as you have done.

I still can't figure out why some simply dismiss this for the positive I see it as.

[Alex4Martinez]

3. Not better for the environment because it perpetuates bad planning.

The automobile era is dying a hard death but it needs to die.
We have gone from communities that allowed a person to walk to most shopping and school and even to jobs to one that, by virtue of planning for the automobile, requires ownership of one. And, to the tune of over $800/month of personal expense.

So, if we look at the big picture then it's not better for the environment. Possibly safer, too soon to tell, but not better than walking and using transit.

And it sure as hell isn't sustainable if you follow the meaning of that concept because it doesn't meet the "equity" criteria.

The RW and corporatists have always hated transit because it's so economical and cost-effective. There's far more money to be made when people have to keep buying oil and tires and pay for insurance, etc., but it's hell on the environment.

Transit, it's better, it's not even up for an argument. Young people, in their youthful wisdom, don't even want to be in a car culture anymore.

http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/millennials-motion

[MindPilot]

4. The private automobile IS mass transit.

As soon as you can figure out a way to get around that doesn't involve a smelly crowded bus that takes an hour to make a ten-minutes trip or poorly maintained train that doesn't go anywhere useful, I'm on board, but until then I'm going to be needing a car to get around.

There are vast areas--especially in the west--that are only accessible by car.

How about putting some effort into upgrading the hundred-year-old signaling and traffic routing? Instead you advocate going backward toward the worst modern transportation imaginable, the city bus. I hope soon to see autonomous vehicles moving down the highway in clusters at well into triple digit speeds.

I can go out and wander about the parking lot at work and find at least half a dozen Teslas. Trust me, none of my coworkers fall into the "rich right-wing asshole" category.

[Alex4Martinez]

5. Um. No.

The hour that it takes is because we've moved away from neighborhood shopping, and toward the big box store model.
It doesn't have to take an hour and buses aren't the only form of transit.

More and more cities are moving back toward a walkable model with more localized shopping.
Rail transit is growing while bus transit is dropping.
Demand response is growing, too, so to the extent that self-driving is applied to smaller public transit vans, for example, yay!

Your technocratic pipe dream of triple digit speeds of individual automobiles is utterly unsustainable and will never happen, ever, at least not in a way that all will benefit.