[bendbro]

I know people have said this before and been very wrong for it, but I just don't think there's much in those constraints to innovate (read Blackberry). Unless you change the only fundamental aspects of owning a car (driving, parking, and maintenance), all you're doing is polishing a turd.

If Apple is just building the car, and fully autonomous transport is out of the picture, then all they can hope to do is make it electric and install all kinds of shiny gizmos inside. Battery tech won't advance on their doing, so we can't expect their "revolutionary" change to involve any actual gain in commuting, but we can expect to be inundated with a lot of beeps and boops. Oh and maybe your Apple watch will unlock the doors.

[abalone]

You mentioned Blackberry. Pre-iPhone, the world probably would have said there isn't much you can do to innovate on smartphones. They will always need keyboards so the screen has to be small, etc.

With cars I want to underscore what I said about a "10X" improvement in safety and convenience. That is not just polishing a turd. What does it take to actually get to a car that largely drives itself, on myriad roads and conditions? It is wishful thinking to believe cars will do this all by themselves without drivers anytime soon.

Instead, think of a UI that is much more about "mind-melding" with a human driver. Letting them know exactly what it is planning to do, how it intends on navigating that stretch of Highway 1 without driving off the cliff. THAT will probably require fundamentally rethinking the cockpit. You will be mostly focused on "driving by instruments".

If they can achieve that, then we get cars that really do save thousands of lives and make the journey much more relaxing.

[matwood]

One of the biggest innovations around the iPhone was the unlimited data plan and removing phone control from the carriers. IMHO, that is what changed everything. People could get a smart phone AND finally use it. SJ basically willed the change onto the phone industry. Does Apple have a personality who can do something similar again?

[iSnow]

>Unless you change the only fundamental aspects of owning a car (driving, parking, and maintenance), all you're doing is polishing a turd.

I guess the real disruption in the automotive sector would be a focus on mobility instead of owning a car. Have a smartphone app where you could call a shared car from wherever you are whenever you wanted. It appears 10m later, takes you to your destination and then goes back into the pool.

At least in the big cities, a whole lot of people would forgo car ownership if such a service was available.

[abalone]

That service is available. You've exactly described Uber.

Driverless cars would be (further) disruptive but only if driverless cars are actually possible. That is mostly a tech press peak hype cycle fantasy right now. Even Google made a public statement throwing cold water on that, saying it could take 30 years.

Meanwhile the disruption we could actually face is with 10X improvements in safety and comfort via semi-autonomous driver assistance features. A car that mostly takes care of itself, but still requires a human pilot that remains engaged, aware and alert, particularly in situations that are more dicey. You know, like how airplane autopilot works.

[greedo]

Careful, your karma might not take the hit from the autonomous driving crowds at HN. I keep looking at the state of the art systems for autonomous vehicles, and shake my head. I don't expect to see them in use in the US in any serious numbers before I die. The obstacles are just too complex/difficult. We always denigrate people's intelligence, but the human mind is pretty incredible at processing things spatially, even when distracted in a minivan hurtling down an Interstate.