Apple Cuts 200+ Employees From 'Project Titan' Autonomous Car Team

tvquang said:
Tesla can build a car from the ground up, so anyone can.

A car is no longer just a mean of transportation. It's getting smarter and more personal. A smart autonomous car which can take its owner everywhere without a driver is the future. For example, an apple car that connect to apple watch, which know the owner's health, can take the owner to the hospital in case it detect illness. You don't know what a smart car can do until they show you, just like you didn't know what a smart phone was capable of until Apple shows us.

Wireless router, monitors,... are old stuffs. There are others who can do these better than Apple. These are not Apple's core business anymore. And it takes a lot of effort to enter and lead an existing market.

In order to lead the world and open new chapter, Apple need to enter another new market first, just like it did with the iPod, iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad. There's a lot of risk in new market, but the opportunity is high.

Microsoft and Google are also researching the autonomous vehicles market (Google is doing it). If Apple doesn't do it, Apple will fall behind once Microsoft and Google make their own autonomous car or cooperate with an auto manufacturer.

The autonomous vehicle involves AI, which is Apple's focus now. Apple has been working hard on AI lately, so definitely it needs to at least own an autonomous vehicles software.
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You: “Tesla can so anyone can.”
Larry Ellison: “Who are you?”
 
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Jadzea97 said:
I guess same reason why a bloke (James Dyson) who makes vacuum cleaners is now making EVs. Maybe cars of the future have more in common with a home appliance than a piece of mechanical engineering? It does seem to me that Apple have had a car on their radar since the days of the original iPod, but despite this they seem hesitant about entering the market. Perhaps the question is what could Apple do differently or better than any other EV manufacturer that wouldn’t just be ‘wacky’ (spherical wheels!?!)?
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i can tell ya all - car is a platform a huge service platform in the future. building a car is not easy but standard technology nowadays. bringing the services to the autonomous car, is what consumer and computer companies bet on.

and they are right - they can do it but its huge, because as i said already ... car companies will fight teeth and claws for their survival to stay important. they have seen what happend to phone manufacturing - it happens in china!

so this will be a huge battle not health as tim predicts
 
tvquang said:
Tesla can build a car from the ground up, so anyone can.

A car is no longer just a mean of transportation. It's getting smarter and more personal. A smart autonomous car which can take its owner everywhere without a driver is the future. For example, an apple car that connect to apple watch, which know the owner's health, can take the owner to the hospital in case it detect illness. You don't know what a smart car can do until they show you, just like you didn't know what a smart phone was capable of until Apple shows us.
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Oh please. I knew what a Smart phone could do and had the potential to do long before Apple showed me. In fact from the first time I saw a tricorder on Star Trek.
That's just tech advancing, Apple are hardly ever first in everything. Those that are, they are the ones that show you what it can do. Apple have just polished it.
 
tvquang said:
Tesla can build a car from the ground up, so anyone can.

A car is no longer just a mean of transportation. It's getting smarter and more personal. A smart autonomous car which can take its owner everywhere without a driver is the future. For example, an apple car that connect to apple watch, which know the owner's health, can take the owner to the hospital in case it detect illness. You don't know what a smart car can do until they show you, just like you didn't know what a smart phone was capable of until Apple shows us.

Wireless router, monitors,... are old stuffs. There are others who can do these better than Apple. These are not Apple's core business anymore. And it takes a lot of effort to enter and lead an existing market.

In order to lead the world and open new chapter, Apple need to enter another new market first, just like it did with the iPod, iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad. There's a lot of risk in new market, but the opportunity is high.

Microsoft and Google are also researching the autonomous vehicles market (Google is doing it). If Apple doesn't do it, Apple will fall behind once Microsoft and Google make their own autonomous car or cooperate with an auto manufacturer.

The autonomous vehicle involves AI, which is Apple's focus now. Apple has been working hard on AI lately, so definitely it needs to at least own an autonomous vehicles software.
Click to expand...
Tesla didn't literally build a car from ground up, they used another one, the Elise, as their first car and only then did they do something new and after 3 new models that aren't still very good at the "car" part. Every article or report that deals on that usually reports that they are still pretty bad on that part. That is also my personal experience. Tesla's flaws wouldn't be tolerated in a regular car, while they keep their first mover advantage most people don't care enough.
What they are good at is the electric power train. Even the batteries are dependent on Panasonic's know how.
Apple isn't as original in entering new markets as it sometimes seems. Apple essentially is always building computers, all its mains products are computers.
Of course cars are also computers but there is a lot more of non computer stuff in a car that it is usual for an Apple product.
Cars are also very manufacturer intensive and a low margin business. Of course these aren't impossible obstacles but they do pile up. Apple's typical contractors have no know how or experience in building cars. There are some others available like those usually used by regular car manufacturers for low volume models.
The AI part is something Apple can provide value but doing parts to be integrated by others isn't really Apple's thing.
 
Margins with cars are 10% at most. Profit Margins for iPhones is estimated to be 64%. If they cant even refresh each one of their computer lines each year because those margins are not juicy. I think they have had a wake up call on a car.
 
tvquang said:
Tesla can build a car from the ground up, so anyone can
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Building a car from the ground up is extraordinarily difficult and it's an amazing feat that Tesla was able to do it. And they're still facing production issues all the time, simply because they're new in a very complex industry.

Your statement is just as ridiculous as "SpaceX can land a rocket vertically on a ship, so anyone can" one would be.
 
Vjosullivan said:
Evidence?
Evidence?
No major car manufacturer will allow themselves to get into a position where they rely on a single supplier for vital components.
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The Apple/iTunes/iPod experience sure taught a lot of lessons around the globe.

Even car manufacturers have digital assistants.
 
calstanford said:
Why Apple, a company with absolutely zero capabilities in car manufacturing and/or AI development has to build automotive AI is beyond me. Where's the core competency? How does it fit into the computer/mobile business?

I just find it laughable how Apple can't invest a few millions in new wireless routers, monitors, you name it as they're not 'core' enough to the business but somehow automotive AI is deserving billions?!
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That's what managers do - falling back on something familiar for new development. Making horse-drawn carriage work with AI would be truly innovative, though.
[doublepost=1548328156][/doublepost]"We're focusing on autonomous systems," said Cook. "It's a core technology that we view as very important. We sort of see it as the mother of all AI projects."

That shows TC does not really understand the essence of AI.
 
I think they're prioritising first the autonomous system and then they'll see if they can do an electric car.

If this is the case, they're right.
 
calstanford said:
Why Apple, a company with absolutely zero capabilities in car manufacturing and/or AI development has to build automotive AI is beyond me. Where's the core competency? How does it fit into the computer/mobile business?

I just find it laughable how Apple can't invest a few millions in new wireless routers, monitors, you name it as they're not 'core' enough to the business but somehow automotive AI is deserving billions?!
Click to expand...

This sounds exactly like what people said about Apple and phones in 2006.
 
Iconoclysm said:
This sounds exactly like what people said about Apple and phones in 2006.
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(Other) People also said at the time that phones were also computers and saying Apple couldn't do a phone was being a bit thick
In 2006 it was pretty obvious that Apple was far from having zero capabilities in anything relating with phones. On the contrary they had most of skills to do a phone.
 
coolfactor said:
Unfortunately, the media will spin this as Apple letting employees go, when clearly they are not doing that, but moving staffing assets around to areas that will have a quick return on the investment.

And I firmly believe they are not set on building a car, but a "car platform"... the best that the market will see. If they are smart, they'll release it as an OEM option for car manufacturers. That will be a first (other than the failed Mac clone program). Apple does not need to get into building cars. They should focus on what they do best... the technology aspect.
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Well the article clearly says layoffs. My understanding of that word is that it means letting employees go.
 
AS someone else already said somewhere, if/when the Apple car comes out it will have one single door, the engine hood glued shut, it will be priced according to the capacity of its tank and number of seats and not be available in space gray...
 
tvquang said:
Tesla can build a car from the ground up, so anyone can.

A car is no longer just a mean of transportation. It's getting smarter and more personal. A smart autonomous car which can take its owner everywhere without a driver is the future. For example, an apple car that connect to apple watch, which know the owner's health, can take the owner to the hospital in case it detect illness. You don't know what a smart car can do until they show you, just like you didn't know what a smart phone was capable of until Apple shows us.

Wireless router, monitors,... are old stuffs. There are others who can do these better than Apple. These are not Apple's core business anymore. And it takes a lot of effort to enter and lead an existing market.

In order to lead the world and open new chapter, Apple need to enter another new market first, just like it did with the iPod, iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad. There's a lot of risk in new market, but the opportunity is high.

Microsoft and Google are also researching the autonomous vehicles market (Google is doing it). If Apple doesn't do it, Apple will fall behind once Microsoft and Google make their own autonomous car or cooperate with an auto manufacturer.

The autonomous vehicle involves AI, which is Apple's focus now. Apple has been working hard on AI lately, so definitely it needs to at least own an autonomous vehicles software.
Click to expand...
Excellent rebuttal that hits almost all the salient points. The same people bemoaning lack of innovation over a headphone jack are fretting about real innovative development like AI and new segments.

And btw, we all have no idea why these 200 employees were reassigned. Maybe Doug Field decided he didn’t need all of what he thought was a bloated team. Or they’re now working on related, parallel projects. No one knows what they’re doing, nor does this tea leaf speculation over the implications for Titan have any validity.
 
timber said:
Your first sentence says it all, why would you start to build a car?
Apple does one thing well (very well indeed) and that is computers. All its products are computers.
Perhaps all its success resulted in overconfidence and delusion.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say the one thing they do well is computers, it's proprietary software for their hardware.
 
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