Comment by klik99 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by klik99 | Hacker News Reader

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Yeah, I absolutely believe that Apple can bring something to car industry - I remember Elon once said that Teslas hidden strength that no other car manufacturer caught on to was treating the car as technology akin to an iPhone with incremental updates and improvements pushed over the air. I've owned a Model X for a few years and I see that approach but don't think Tesla has perfected it. Apple has the potential to innovate there. Cars, even ones that look like "traditional" cars, have been computers on wheels for a long time - for example, when you press the brakes there isn't and hasn't been for a long time a direct connection to the physical brakes. I have no idea what that would look like, and as someone who thought the iPhone was a worse version of an iPod and that the iPad filled a non-existant need I don't think I can speculate. But it just feels like an area that lags behind in terms of UX, which Apple often excels at.

Edit: I'm a dumb dumb and the brakes example was bad. I don't edit my mistakes in forums so peoples replies make sense. I still think the rest of the point is valid.

Small nitpick but almost every car today still has brakes that work via direct force vs by wire.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake-by-wire

That seems wrong. My brakes work with both batteries disconnected, though I have to push very hard. Audi made in 2014.

With power brakes, there's a brake booster (usually vacuum powered) which applies most of the force. When the engine is off (or if you have a broken brake booster) braking is entirely on you.

Indeed. The brake boost works one or two times right after engine power down, it's kinda funny - I like to push the brake before getting out just to feel it harden.

>>for example, when you press the brakes there isn't and hasn't been for a long time a direct connection to the physical brakes

I'm sorry but you're getting it completely wrong. Brake by wire isn't legal anywhere in any market of the world and consequently there are zero cars implemented this way - every car currently on sale everywhere has to have a physical connection between the brake pedal and the actual brakes.

Throttle by wire on the other hand - sure. Nearly all new cars only have an electronic throttle.

Steer by wire is making progress, with Lexus making the first road legal car that has a steering wheel that's fully disconnected from the steering rack, with only electronic control.

Lexus has a backup mechanical link it engages when a fault is detected. The Tesla Cybertruck is the first vehicle on the road with no such backup. They rely on redundancy of motors, power, and compute instead

Does it have a backup link? According to this video:

https://youtu.be/agMrewRJTow?si=DrjfGsrKp5_ZazB-

There isn't a mechanical connection of any kind - the car just relies on triple(!) Backup for every component, including three fully independent power sources.

Thank you, yes that was probably literally the worst example I could have given.

But isn't there famously brake by wire in toyota EVs? And that physical connection is required as a fallback?

Yes, they always have a physical fallback :-) and don't worry the systems like that do exist just not with brakes - it's an easy mistake to make.

Lots of cars brake by wire -- but not through the brake pedal.

> there isn't and hasn't been for a long time a direct connection to the physical brakes.

I don't think this is true for most vehicles. Skoda Octavia 2020 for example still has hydraulic brakes. I was going to suggest that no mass-production vehicles use a brake-by-wire system but I would have been wrong, according to wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake-by-wire

I wish more comments were like this. Misjudging the iPhone etc probably just comes down to a lack of information about broader needs. Its not always a bad take.

I think Apple can provide an emphasis on modularity for the car manufacturers. What if you literally had a place to slip in an iPad as your display? What if cars legitimately came with VisionPro type headsets - if not for the drivers, then the passengers. What if apple encourages people fr.shifting away by car ownership by making it easier to jump into a car and have it show all your customizations (lighting, adjustments, heads up display arrangements). Another car company could make the shell and the power train. Apple would handle the "experience" and integrate it into its other offerings. Cloud Cars.

This is just CarPlay or Android Auto though.

> What if cars legitimately came with VisionPro type headsets

Or what if the people who wanted that just bought their headset of choice?

> What if apple encourages people fr.shifting away by car ownership by making it easier to jump into a car and have it show all your customizations (lighting, adjustments, heads up display arrangements).

Question: when you get into someone else's car, is the first thing you notice the lighting, or is it how clean it is?

The accelerator likely would have been a better example. I'm not sure that any car currently shipping has a direct connection between the accelerator and a throttle.

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