Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by LaminatorX on Saturday August 15 2015, @04:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the Less-space-than-a-nomad dept.

Apple is building a self-driving car in Silicon Valley, and is scouting for secure locations in the San Francisco Bay area to test it, the Guardian has learned. Documents show the oft-rumoured Apple car project appears to be further along than many suspected.

In May, engineers from Apple’s secretive Special Project group met with officials from GoMentum Station, a 2,100-acre former naval base near San Francisco that is being turned into a high-security testing ground for autonomous vehicles.

In correspondence obtained by the Guardian under a public records act request, Apple engineer Frank Fearon wrote: “We would ... like to get an understanding of timing and availability for the space, and how we would need to coordinate around other parties who would be using [it].”

Automobile manufacturing is a radical departure from Apple's core business. Can they pull it off?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Sunday August 16 2015, @09:09AM

    by TheRaven (270) on Sunday August 16 2015, @09:09AM (#223477) Journal
    Because you can't build good UIs without user testing (a lesson that a lot of software projects - open and proprietary alike - could do well to learn). You can go a little bit of the way with simulators, but you'll lose real-world use cases. For example, you probably want to integrate the maps app with your in-car entertainment system. How do you handle interactions where the car needs the user to make a decision (e.g. there's traffic ahead, and we can avoid a delay by going on a toll road, what do you want to do)?. The user responses are going to be very different if they're in an actual car and need to get somewhere than if they're in a simulator with faked motivations.
    --
    sudo mod me up
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2