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from the control-with-a-macbook-wheel dept.
Apple Reportedly Teams With Kia to Produce Apple Car:
Apple is investing about $3.6 billion in a car partnership with Kia Motors, according to a report out of South Korea.
[...] Apple will set up production with Kia and build Apple cars at the company's facility in Georgia, Korean newspaper DongA Ilbo reported, though the report did not cite sources for the information, Bloomberg reported.
The newspaper also said that the two companies could sign a deal on Feb. 17 and are planning to introduce Apple cars in 2024, with an initial target to produce 100,000 vehicles a year.
Last month, South Korean automaker Hyundai, an affiliate of Kia's, announced it was in preliminary talks with Apple on developing a self-driving car, before quickly backing away from the statement and saying it has received requests from a number of technology suitors to develop autonomous electric vehicles.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday February 04 2021, @08:14PM
If he did this it was in no way, shape or form with consumers in mind. It was entirely with the idea of increasing fossil fuel use. His entire energy and environmental policy was heavily geared towards this.
Consumers tend to want what cars they get marketed (brainwashed?) to want. Why else would pickups all have their beds shortened to useless proportions so they can have extended cabs and double cabs? Essentially they have made them SUV's with an unprotected cargo area. As far as the rest of new cars go, I wonder who really needs their vehicle to be what they have become. A multi-informational display shows reams of unnecessary information. Plus what the dashboard displays show. Symbols for various things can light up that require you to consult the big fat manual (over half of which is dire warnings about what can go or you can do wrong - probably written by lawyers) to find out what they mean. The dashboard tells you the speed limit if it can see a sign (if it can, I can) and it warns you if you are speeding (who else gets that warning?). Headlights have four settings, and that's with a basic model. Ditto with the wipers. Excitedly they explain you can connect your phone, no, I don't want to. My phone is a phone. You get automatically enrolled in trial periods for satellite radio and a connect service to the car company (might have to link your phone for that). You can turn your car into a WiFi hotspot! You can plug in a USB drive with your own music and video, it will "conveniently" connect and add track information (who else gets that information?). I've found my way for decades without a GPS. Loads of other "features".
What I really want is apparently no longer generally available. Bench seats. I would be OK with just a CD player (heck, I even still have a huge box of cassettes I recorded way back), although being able to plug in mp3's would be OK. None of that needs to go beyond the car though. Certainly don't need or want Google Play or Apple Play. A drop down tailgate instead of a hatchback. I would be fine with manual roll down windows. A standard transmission instead of a continually variable (automatic) transmission. A simplified display (drivers are distracted enough).
I suppose I should shake my fist and yell for you to get off my lawn.