Apple self-driving car rear ended during road testing

[rooster59]

Apple self-driving car rear ended during road testing

By Stephen Nellis and Laharee Chatterjee

 

FILE PHOTO: The company's logo is seen outside Austria's first Apple store, which opens on February 24, during a media preview in Vienna, Austria, February 22, 2018. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader

 

(Reuters) - An Apple Inc <AAPL.O> self-driving car was rear-ended while merging onto an expressway near the company's Silicon Valley headquarters this month, the company said in an accident report posted on Friday that confirmed the iPhone maker is still in the race to build autonomous vehicles.

 

Apple executives have never publicly spoken about the company's self-driving car programme, but filings in a criminal court case last month confirmed that the company had at least 5,000 employees working on the project and that it was working on circuit boards and a "proprietary chip" related to self-driving cars.

 

Apple is entering a crowded field where rivals such as Alphabet Inc's <GOOGL.O> Waymo unit and traditional carmakers such as General Motors Co's <GM.N> Cruise Automation, as well as startups such as Silicon Valley's Zoox, are pouring billions of dollars into cars that can drive themselves.

 

On Aug. 24, one of Apple's Lexus RX 450h self-driving test vehicles in "autonomous mode" was merging south on the Lawrence Expressway in Sunnyvale, California at less than 1 mile per hour when it was rear-ended by a 2016 Nissan Leaf going about 15 miles per hour, according to the report posted on the California Department of Motor Vehicles website.

 

The accident happened at about 3 p.m. as the Apple vehicle had slowed and was waiting for a safe gap in traffic to complete the merge, the report said.

 

Both vehicles sustained damage but there were no injuries, the report said. Under a safety plan filed with California regulators, a human driver must be able to take control of Apple's self-driving test cars.

 

An Apple spokesman confirmed that the company had filed the report but did not comment further. He declined to respond to questions about whether the trailing car could have been at fault.

 

Apple's efforts remained shrouded in secrecy until years after its rivals like Google had begun testing on public roads. The iPhone maker's first public acknowledgement of interest in the field came in a letter to U.S. transportation regulators in late 2016 urging them not to restrict testing of the vehicles.

 

Last year, Apple secured a permit to test autonomous vehicles in California. It has been testing cars on the road since last year and now has permits for more than 60 vehicles. Apple researchers also last year published their first public research on cars, a software system that could help spot pedestrians more readily.

 

The safety of self-driving cars has become a source of concern for U.S. transportation regulators this year after one of Uber Technologies Inc's vehicles struck and killed a woman in March in Arizona, prompting the company to shut down its testing efforts for a time. Uber has said it plans to have self-driving cars back on the road by the end of the year.

 

The California DMV said it has received it has received 95 autonomous vehicle collision reports as of Aug. 31. Dozens of companies have received permits to test self-driving vehicles on California roads, but those permits require the presence of a human safety driver.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-09-01

 

[lupin]

Will it have proprietary tyres that are slightly less round that are incompatible with standard rims and can only be purchased in authorized apple stores?

[ballpoint]

Just now, lupin said:

Will it have proprietary tyres that are slightly less round that are incompatible with standard rims and can only be purchased in authorized apple stores?

It will have standard wheels, and look exactly like any other car on the road, and then Apple will sue all other car manufacturers for copying its design.

[Vacuum]

Who the heck would want to buy a "self-driving car"? If you don't like to drive, take a taxi.

[mok199]

I think Apple needs a probe into that rear ender..

[balo]

I promised myself never to buy an Apple product . I'll not changing that strategy . 

 

Self driving cars is just a hype ,  if they really can make it work , who wants to be the passengers? 

 

 

 

[attrayant]

53 minutes ago, balo said:

if they really can make it work , who wants to be the passengers? 

 

... said the first critics of the horseless carriage.

[whatsupdoc]

1 hour ago, balo said:

I promised myself never to buy an Apple product . I'll not changing that strategy . 

 

You can't afford them or you don't like user friendly quality products?

[from the home of CC]

sounds perfect for here.

[The Deerhunter]

In common motor insurance law the car the bangs into the other in a rear ender is usually to blame.  In this case it was a Nisan Leaf. They are electric and have autonomous features as well, don't they?  Was it in autonomous mode and with or without, was it possibly to blame, not the Apple Lexus?   Interestingly, the article never mentioned Tesla.   They are the usual go-to mention-of-choice car in any autonomous vehicle accident.

Edited September 1, 2018 by The Deerhunter

[balo]

27 minutes ago, whatsupdoc said:

don't like user friendly quality products?

I prefer Windows computers and Android phones. 

 

I have been working in the IT business since back in the 80's and never understood the hype about Apple. And here I am 40 years later and never touched an Apple product. I am still alive and happy . 

 

 

 

 

[bubba]

48 minutes ago, balo said:

I prefer Windows computers and Android phones. 

 

I have been working in the IT business since back in the 80's and never understood the hype about Apple. And here I am 40 years later and never touched an Apple product. I am still alive and happy . 

 

 

 

 

Neither did Steve Balmer when the first iPhone was released:

 

Quote

It's sort of a funny question. Would I trade 96% of the market for 4% of the market? (Laughter.) I want to have products that appeal to everybody. 

Now we'll get a chance to go through this again in phones and music players. There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. 

 

[janclaes47]

7 minutes ago, bubba said:

There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. 

And he was right about that, ecause first quarter 2018 the market share was just 12.1%.

 

It are only the naive that want to pay double or triple for something with a certain name.

 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/216459/global-market-share-of-apple-iphone/

[Esso49]

A quaint choose of words as many persons in Pattaya are rear ended everyday ???

[mikebike]

1 hour ago, balo said:

I prefer Windows computers and Android phones. 

 

I have been working in the IT business since back in the 80's and never understood the hype about Apple. And here I am 40 years later and never touched an Apple product. I am still alive and happy . 

 

 

 

 

In the biz since 80s also. Always had a mix of Windows, Apple, Android and Linux products.

 

You r like a car mechanic who has only ever dealt with one make (Yugo) and think it's equal to a MB!!

Edited September 1, 2018 by mikebike

[Small Joke]

World headlines when a computer driven car is rear ended by a human idiot. 

Forget the fact we rely on computers to land planes in zero visibility. 

Forget the fact two more will die by human controlled traffic in Thailand alone in the next 60 minutes,  let's all lose our shit over a single accident in which a machine was indirectly involved. 

Pathetically retarded moral panic journalism.

[wombat]

rear ended....i guess it never saw that coming.

[Rhys]

Cupertino idiots... for sure.

[balo]

3 hours ago, mikebike said:

You r like a car mechanic who has only ever dealt with one make

 

Well , back in the 80's , it was a more divided camp .  Apple products were not a part of our product line . We looked down on Apple at least until their laptops started to gain popularity in the 90's .

 

For us it was more business in helping out customers with the traditional line of computers from well known companies like IBM, Olivetti and Toshiba .

MS DOS and Windows , it was a challenge at times , but everyone loves a challenge. 

 

 

[Expatthailover]

5 hours ago, Esso49 said:

A quaint choose of words as many persons in Pattaya are rear ended everyday ???

Yes ladyboys by westerners 

[Krataiboy]

10 hours ago, from the home of CC said:

sounds perfect for here.

Agreed. And while they are at it could they kindly produce a driverless motorcycle, too. I should have a saddle big enough for at least four pillion passengers, a front carrier a dog to sit in comfortably - plus built-in wifi so the family can text and take a few selfies with their smartphones while on a school or somtam run.

[Stargeezr]

So a self driving car has already  ran over a woman and killed her, Now this!

 Oh what will the future be like, dead people everywhere?

 

[attrayant]

Just now, Stargrazer9889 said:

So a self driving car has already  ran over a woman and killed her, Now this!  Oh what will the future be like, dead people everywhere?

 

 

It'll be a future where dozens of people are hurt by driverless cars instead of thousands hurt by cars with human drivers in them. 

 

Why does everyone think that driverless cars = totally harmless & fatality-free?  I'm wondering how you feel about air travel.  Airplanes do crash sometimes, you know.

[Damrongsak]

20 hours ago, mikebike said:

In the biz since 80s also. Always had a mix of Windows, Apple, Android and Linux products.

 

You r like a car mechanic who has only ever dealt with one make (Yugo) and think it's equal to a MB!!

Hey, the kid up the street races a small Fiat in the 24 Hours of Lemons races here in the US that was made in the Yugo factory.  It will run rings around his Dad's Model T Ford (when it runs).

[Esso49]

20 hours ago, mikebike said:

In the biz since 80s also. Always had a mix of Windows, Apple, Android and Linux products.

 

You r like a car mechanic who has only ever dealt with one make (Yugo) and think it's equal to a MB!!

Which proves the point I guess no matter how old you, some people remain so immature that they still have to turn a sensible post into a p***ing contest. ☹️

[Small Joke]

23 hours ago, balo said:

I promised myself never to buy an Apple product . I'll not changing that strategy . 

 

Self driving cars is just a hype ,  if they really can make it work , who wants to be the passengers? 

 

 

 

Just like smart phones vs landlines -only the tipping point will be twice as fast arriving- and unlike phones,  because of overriding safety, I. E. removing the idiots,  you won't get to choose.

Insurance companies will also back the technology, leaving you open to foot your own medical/repair costs as a human driver.  Back to horses and mules for you then...

Edited September 2, 2018 by Small Joke

[Small Joke]

50 minutes ago, attrayant said:

 

It'll be a future where dozens of people are hurt by driverless cars instead of thousands hurt by cars with human drivers in them. 

 

Why does everyone think that driverless cars = totally harmless & fatality-free?  I'm wondering how you feel about air travel.  Airplanes do crash sometimes, you know.

They don't care about that,  they just wanna be da big shot behind da wheel.  They all think they're The Stig,  or worse,  Clarkson. ?

Every airline disaster in recent memory where no direct and catastrophic mechanical failure has ocurred, has resulted because  humans were overriding, if not completely ignoring, the aircraft's warning systems. 

So there's that. 

[Small Joke]

1 hour ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

So a self driving car has already  ran over a woman and killed her, Now this!

 Oh what will the future be like, dead people everywhere?

 

This is just Classic!  Probably what some old cavalry geezer said in 1908, only they were right about the future horrendous death toll,  and it never hurt auto sales for a second, in fact machines just got faster, and we even let teens drive them. 

Driverless cars and bikes,  are needed here like Yesterday! 

[bubba]

1 hour ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

So a self driving car has already  ran over a woman and killed her, Now this!

 Oh what will the future be like, dead people everywhere?

 

Perhaps in the future, rather than Somchai in command of his pickup following several hours of lao khao with his mates, the computer will be doing the driving. 

[mikebike]

18 hours ago, balo said:

 

Well , back in the 80's , it was a more divided camp .  Apple products were not a part of our product line . We looked down on Apple at least until their laptops started to gain popularity in the 90's .

 

For us it was more business in helping out customers with the traditional line of computers from well known companies like IBM, Olivetti and Toshiba .

MS DOS and Windows , it was a challenge at times , but everyone loves a challenge. 

 

 

My company had a gigantic graphic arts department so we had to integrate DOS/Mac OS starting in '86. Talk about challenging...