From “This Apple car concept is a 360-degree maneuverable, self-driving, two-seater for the future” posted Sunday by Yanko Design:
When you think about it, driving solo or even with one other passenger in a five-seater car is a wasteful thing! Many may beg to differ, but I think the purpose is defied when a vehicle capable of ferrying up to five people has just one or two alighting at the car park. That’s the primary reason I may for a minute visualize streets filled with two-seaters.
An Apple Car in that domain is slightly an overboard assumption but then we have been through a number of Apple Car concepts in the past, and all of them have some level of irrationality. Filling the gap between imagination and reality these are the best of what we know the Apple Car would be but the Apple Autonomous concept has a different idea. The two-seat pod for Apple foresees a future where such vehicles will be self-driving from pillar to post carrying and dropping off passengers and quietly moving back to their defined parking spot like a decent Roomba in the house.
My take: At Apple, form follows function. This car looks like it swallowed a couple pairs of AirPods.
In regards to the Apple Car, NHTSA has steadily been releasing various Standing General Orders related to manufacturers of Autonomous cars already on the road. AV makers must report accidents. At the end of each General Order they list the current AV car & parts manufacturers the orders apply to.
Katherine Adams General Counsel Apple
One Apple Park Way Cupertino, CA is now included.
These incremental steps at safety regulation provide clues to what is going on behind the scenes. Didi Chuxing opened an AV research center in Mountain View, not far from an Apple facility nearby. I’ve long felt Apple will release/test early AV models in a more controlled car sharing environment.
The NHTSA database is new and not easy to parse but Apple does not appear to have reported an AV crash yet. I know they have several AVs driving about, they use common car models with the AV gadgets attached throughout. You have break some eggs to make an omelet.
And a marshmallow. And some mushrooms. Definitely some mushrooms.
“EH, no! While futuristic, no way this design concept fits into any notion of Apple aesthetics. And form certainly doesn’t follow function here. But it is a weird interpretation of a potential vehicle.“
With CAD CAM one can propose all manner of car designs and not be terribly concerned with actual operational parameters and such. The above egg car supposedly has a flat side to the pod with opposing tinted glass door/windows that allow ingress and egress. The egg pod allows 360 degree rotation for any view at any time although I suspect many passengers would get motion sickness just from the visual movement compared to body sensing motion confusion. Plus the natural notion to turn your head to see sideways is completely negated. Now propose a completely clear pod with electronically controlled darkening panels and maybe you have something more useful. The interior room is, let’s say, cozy?
Of course, the rest of the chassis has no practical battery, storage or drivetrain space but hey, it’s a concept car, right? Versus many Auto company concepts built that can actually run or be close to roadworthy.