The Apple Car’s First Test Drive Was A Total Disaster

Apple has a history of doing things differently, and its approach to the self-driving car is no different. While Tesla, Mercedes, and BMW all aim to add self-driving features to what you may recognize as a standard road car, Apple’s proposed product may not be what you expect a vehicle to look like. If rumors are to be believed, Apple’s fully-autonomous self-driving car will not feature any windows. Instead of watching the actual world roll by as they’re chauffeured to their destinations, Apple Car passengers could be looking at a virtual one. The company has filed a patent for a “VR system for use in autonomous vehicles with no windows,” and it’s easy to speculate where the technology for that patent may end up. The batch of patents the VR system was in also included a display for a VR headset designed to “eliminate accommodation-convergence mismatch problems like headaches, nausea, and eyestrain.” VR sickness and travel sickness have very similar root causes, so there is a possibility of Apple removing passengers’ views of the outside world in an attempt to increase travel comfort.

Two kinds of Apple self-driving cars are reportedly planned. A semi-autonomous model is allegedly intended to hit the market first, followed by a fully autonomous car. The tech company seems to have a lot of confidence in its fully autonomous model, as it is rumored to completely lack a steering wheel or pedals. Like many Apple products, the self-driving car is expected to target the higher end of the market, putting it in direct competition with most of Tesla’s range and other luxury companies like Lucid. Although no details are confirmed, customers should likely expect to pay north of $100,000 for Apple’s entry into the self-driving car market.