Apple Car Hardware Engineer Leaves for Air Taxi Startup

[mariusignorello]

The things rich people tell each other so they can feel better about themselves:

Archer’s marketing really is quite something.

Seriously…who do you think is going to spur more innovation? A broke person with no resources or the wealthy who can afford to research, test, fail and eventually bring a product to market? What have you brought to market that is deserving of an elaborate description?

Stop with this nonsense, it’s old and stupid.

 

[mariusignorello]

He won’t stay at his next job long either. He sounds like the impatient type.

Impatience is excellent for corporate bureaucracy. Might piss some people off but time is money.

 

[citysnaps]

See my post #4

You were drawing similarities to iPhone, so not sure who is lacking understanding of iPhone to a car

No...

Your post: "And how many years did Apple spend on creating the iPhone?
I think the Apple car is in the makes for at least 7 or 8 years…"

followed by:

"The EV and autonomous world is moving FAST, Apple car is moving SLOW (if it even is as we do not have any useful information beyond the Lexus fleet)"

Apparently not understanding why Apple is moving SLOW, compared to iPhone development.

 

[jimbobb24]

All electric plus air flight means flight times of less than 30 min. Current battery energy density too low.

We need that next breakthrough to make this viable. Lithium just doesn’t have what it takes.

 

[Breaking Good]

Schwekutsch first joined the Apple Car project in March of 2019, and he served as a senior director of engineering on the special project group, aka the Apple Car team. Prior to that, he was Tesla's vice president of engineering.

Why on earth would anyone want to hire this guy? He never finishes anything he starts.

 

[jz0309]

No...

Your post: "And how many years did Apple spend on creating the iPhone?
I think the Apple car is in the makes for at least 7 or 8 years…"

followed by:

"The EV and autonomous world is moving FAST, Apple car is moving SLOW (if it even is as we do not have any useful information beyond the Lexus fleet)"

Apparently not understanding why Apple is moving SLOW, compared to iPhone development.

if

This reminds me of the time Apple had the audacity to step up and compete against Motorola, Ericsson, and Nokia (at the time collectively referred to as MEN, all giants in the cellular telecom industry), creating iPhone. #16

is not drawing or at least suggesting similarities, then I don't know, whatever.

market dynamics in EV/autonomous is very different from the ones in telecom back when iPhone came out

 

[dmr727]

Why on earth would anyone want to hire this guy? He never finishes anything he starts.

Sounds like he'd be perfect for Google.

 

[Wanted797]

Anyone else think this so-called Apple Car is going to turn into the next Apple TV which went from premium high-end TV ... to a cheap little box you connect to your current TV?

Yep. Apple won’t make a tv because the profit margin for them is so small.

Cars are the same.

Honestly they probably just developing self driving software and infortainment that they’ll sell to manufacturers. Or perhaps they put the car costs and margin on the company building it (say Kia). Then load their software on it and call it “Apple Car”.

 

[Freeangel1]

the team keeps leaving boys.

give it up.

Buy a Mach E Mustang instead.

 

[SFjohn]

An all-electric aircraft? I'm sure the mileage will be fantastic ...

Solar powered I’m sure, it will be able to fly forever… /s

 

[Reason077]

What is wrong with this project and why is the only thing we know about it the people who are leaving and coming in

Autonomous electric cars are just not that exciting any more. Pretty much every automaker in the world has some in the pipeline at this point.

Flying cars, on the other hand? Now that is still the future!

 

[citysnaps]

if

This reminds me of the time Apple had the audacity to step up and compete against Motorola, Ericsson, and Nokia (at the time collectively referred to as MEN, all giants in the cellular telecom industry), creating iPhone. #16

is not drawing or at least suggesting similarities, then I don't know, whatever.

market dynamics in EV/autonomous is very different from the ones in telecom back when iPhone came out

Nope, again...

My similarities, iPhone and Apple Car, address ONLY with respect to Apple embarking on a somewhat secret program, entering a market that has/had nothing to do with Apple's core business. Back when the company name was Apple Computer. And in both scenarios people predicting failure.

It was you making a case that the Apple's car development was SLOW (making note it has been going on 7-8 years) relative to iPhone development. And there are now "A lot..." lot of EV manufacturers and that world is moving FAST. :

"How many EV manufacturers are out there today, besides the established big ones who also make EVs today? A lot…
The EV and autonomous world is moving FAST, Apple car is moving SLOW (if it even is as we do not have any useful information beyond the Lexus fleet)"

 

[Reason077]

An all-electric aircraft? I'm sure the mileage will be fantastic ...

That doesn’t really matter if you’re talking about quick taxi hops.

Think the sort of trips that rich people do by helicopter today (skip traffic from downtown out to airport, short hop over to an island, etc). But now with electric VTOL aircraft it’ll be cheaper, safer, more convenient, quieter, etc.

 

[scotty321]

Sounds like the entire Apple Car team has been disbanded by now. That’s a good thing, so we can finally put to rest the idea that Apple should ever enter the auto market.

 

[oldMac]

After getting familiar with the situation, everyone know that Apple has a very slight chance of setting up a splash in this area. Apple stepped too late into this area, and makes progress too slowly. It falls farther and farther behind Google in the autonomous driving technology

How do you know Apple is behind? Miles driven? How’s do you know that Apple isn’t virtually driving millions of miles per week?

The company that wins this will be the company that masters virtual testing and only then brings forth a car, imo.

 

[DummyFool]

It is overblown, this director was offered a senior vp job with I guess lots of stock options that could make him a very rich man. It does not say anything about the project.

 

[CordovaLark]

But hey everyone is/was so determined in the belief that Apple would somehow replace Tesla by 2025...

 

[TheRealDGD]

People can't drive on roads that are paved and lined and organized and some people think one day people will be flying around like the Jetson's, I like the idea but not the reality..........

 

[Johnny907]

I don’t blame him. The ridiculous middle management mafia running things at Apple right now has got to be just maddening.
Starting to stink of the John Scully era.

 

[applicious84]

I feel like this is for Logan from Succession

 

[Karma*Police]

What is wrong with this project and why is the only thing we know about it the people who are leaving and coming in

What’s wrong with this project is it doesn’t have a single vision; Lack of leadership; development by committee. The best thing that could’ve happened to Apple was if they bought Tesla and Elon replaced Tim as CEO.

 

[syklee26]

Considering that this is Apple’s future, I am sure so many of Apple top management trying to pull the strings and quite a mess from corporate politics. Engineers tend to get sick of that really quickly so they bolt.

 

[Piggie]

Yep. Apple won’t make a tv because the profit margin for them is so small.

Cars are the same.

Honestly they probably just developing self driving software and infortainment that they’ll sell to manufacturers. Or perhaps they put the car costs and margin on the company building it (say Kia). Then load their software on it and call it “Apple Car”.

Yeah, that is one theory, but I can see big problems here.

The car itself does not kill/injure anyone. It's just a mobile machine.
It's how it's controlled which does all the damage.

Currently by a human, and we blame/punish humans for operating the car in a way it can kill/harm others.

Or, in the future by software that WILL kill/harm others.

If you make just a car, you can look the master of engineering and be seen as creating something amazing.
If you make the software and it works perfect, then, well, that's what's expected.
No one will give you an award for NOT crashing/killing someone.

But they will come down on you like a ton of bricks, when your software does crash/kill someone.

If Apple is only working on the, lets call it, "computer driver" then that's very risky.
As I said, it it works perfect, well, that will just be expected.
When it does the wrong thing Apple will look bad.

Does not feel like a great idea, as only negative aspects will get reported.

 

[Vasilioskn]

What is wrong with this project and why is the only thing we know about it the people who are leaving and coming in

This is going to be a **** show and could possibly be the decline of apple as a brand.

 

[genovelle]

At some point, even Apple will need to deliver !

Yes. Deliver on something they have never even commented on.