Apple Hires High-Profile Senior Waymo Engineer for Self-Driving Car Project

[Tech198]

"Apple's self-driving shuttle program has been described as behind schedule and "consuming nearly all of the car team's attention," with the company having no clear idea of what it will do with the autonomous driving project beyond the shuttle efforts."

Apple is just poking. NBN and Apple have allot in common.

 

[glowplug]

Waydo worked for Waymo. Weird.

Presumably Waygo and Wayto still work for Waymo.

 

[Mildredop]

Autonomous vehicle programs are really starting to heat up. It's about to get real. Cyberdyne 1.0 here we come.

I find the whole self-driving car thing absolutely fascinating and will be watching closely as it all unfolds. But I think one thing Waymo, Tesla, Apple etc are all forgetting is humans. Sure, cars will one day be able to drive themselves, but will humans want them to?

What about the cross-over period where human drivers learn that you can cut in front of a self-driving car knowing it'll screech to a halt. Being the passenger in an automated car would quickly get frustrating! No nipping through the lights, no breaking the speed limit.

And what about when cities decide that all self-driving cars have to slave to a central computer that routes traffic in the most efficient way for the whole city. Not the best for you, but best for traffic flow. So suddenly your 10min nip across town takes 25mins as a central computer takes you on a detour to help traffic flow.

Will people pay to park their cars? Or just do their shopping whilst their car drives around the town for an hour. Congestion could become epic.

And don't forget, we've had self-driving cars for decades. You get in them, say where you want to go, and it takes you there while you have a sleep.

They're called taxis.

But it hasn't stopped people spending tens of thousands on their own car that they have to drive themselves.

 

[sehns]

I don't want an Apple car. I want an Apple computer that doesn't suck. Apple has lost its way.

 

[Rogifan]

I don't want an Apple car. I want an Apple computer that doesn't suck. Apple has lost its way.

They need to rename this site macwhiners.com. Insufferable.

 

[mgauss7]

Apple has hired Jaime Waydo, an autonomous vehicle expert who previously worked as a senior engineer at Google's Waymo, reports The Information. An Apple spokesperson confirmed the hiring, but declined to provide details on what she would be working on.

Waydo, who served as head of systems engineering at Waymo, was "instrumental," according to former colleagues that spoke to The Information. She was in charge of verifying the safety of Waymo's prototypes and provided input on when it was safe enough to launch on-the-road tests in Phoenix in 2016.

Prior to working at Waymo, Waydo was a senior engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for more than a decade, where she helped develop a rover vehicle that has driven on Mars.

The Information speculates that Apple's hiring of Waydo could indicate that it is making progress towards launching a prototype vehicle, but the report also says that the car project continues to suffer from a "lack of communication among teams."

Apple originally had ambitious self-driving vehicle plans that included a full autonomous vehicle, but those plans were scaled back and Apple shifted focus to autonomous driving software. Apple has been testing Lexus vehicles equipped with its autonomous driving software since April 2017.

In May, Apple signed a deal with Volkswagen to use Volkswagen vans for its on-campus shuttle program called "PAIL," which is designed to transport employees around its various campuses and office buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Volkswagens will be autonomous, powered by Apple's self-driving software.

Apple's self-driving shuttle program has been described as behind schedule and "consuming nearly all of the car team's attention," with the company having no clear idea of what it will do with the autonomous driving project beyond the shuttle efforts.

Article Link: Apple Hires High-Profile Senior Waymo Engineer for Self-Driving Car Project

[doublepost=1529151627][/doublepost]Every self driving car fatality will be a multimillion dollar lawsuit, against “billion dollar” companies. Big mistake for any large company. And cars are not ready by any means. I saw the video of the Uber that ran into the woman walking her bicycle and even a 6 year old would have stopped but the Uber car didn’t.

 

[lkrupp]

I don't want an Apple car. I want an Apple computer that doesn't suck. Apple has lost its way.

Apple has not lost its way, it has found a new way to stay profitable and grow. Get over it.

 

[citysnaps]

I don't want an Apple car. I want an Apple computer that doesn't suck. Apple has lost its way.

Then head on down to your local Apple Store, open your wallet, and simply buy one.

I have two.

A 27" 5K iMac with a gorgeous 5,120 x 2,880 display sporting a DCI-P3 color gamut (I'm a photographer, that's important), Quad Core 4.2 GHz CPU, 24 GB RAM, a fast 2 TB SSD, and loads of ports. If I needed more power (I don't) there's always the iMac Pro.

And...A MBP that's both lightweight, compact, and superb for traveling, with four ports of very flexible Thunderbolt 3 I/O, each offering up to 40 Gb/sec rates.

 

[radiologyman]

Self driving cars will take a long time to mature but they are coming for sure. I don't mind if for several years it will require driver to be ready to take over. Apple correctly concluded that having a competitive software product in this potentially huge market may be very profitable and great for expanding Apple ecosystem. Mac profitability will continue to shrink and honestly, upgrade cycles continue to lengthen making Mac updates low priority

 

[friedmud]

Tesla's Autopilot issues have proven how dangerous this tech is and the potential dangers just get worse when you realize people can and will hack these systems to override where you want to go and perhaps even force your car to kill you. Don't think for a moment that it won't happen, it may be hackers or the government, but someone will do it to people. Hopefully not to you or anyone you know, but it will happen.

You have to weigh those possibilities against just how dangerous it is to drive now.

Driving is one of the single most dangerous activities humans are involved with. If self-driving cars have accident rates even just a few percentages below human drivers... then thousands of lives will be saved per year.

Driving has become even more dangerous lately with distracted driving on the rise. Look at how the numbers have started to go up here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in_U.S._by_year

The only way to save ourselves from this is to make our cars smarter so that we need to personally drive less.

I just got a new Ford Edge... and it doesn't have "automony" features... but even the safety features it does have (lane keep assist, collision warning, parking sensors, backup camera, adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection, etc.) go a long way towards helping to prevent an accident. With even more "assisted driving" systems coming online (and becoming more standard) hopefully we'll start to see a decline in the number of deaths again...

 

[Scooz]

I can see the logic, but all the big car companies probably have teams working on this already.

The idea would be to build up an attractive and hard to circumvent patent portfolio to be able to force yourself into the talks, minds and cars of actual manufacturers.

If Apple didn’t build their own car, they would at least have a foot into the industry to sell their onboard solutions. Competition with Google would be impossible otherwise.
[doublepost=1529167101][/doublepost]Self-driving project

Self-driving experts

 

[predation]

With all the restrictions Apple puts on fixing their phones by 3rd parties. I can imagine, "Oops, flat tire? Well you can only use Apple proprietary tire or we will deactivate your car" And with the planned obsolescence, your car will be forced to be upgraded every 2 years. And careful with the software updates, cause it will throttle your top-speed due to degraded batteries.

Your not realizing the big picture.
Car ownership model is going away.

Subscription model along with mass fleet automation is the future.

I sure as hell don’t want to own cars anymore. They’re just big money pits.

Believe me, I’m in the industry.

 

[farmboy]

While you're right, "Apple doesn't do no profit", no profit means the price will be significantly lower. Teslas rents the few "dealer" and repair locations. And since Tesla also made their patents available to the public, the only assets they really have are the facilities. Nice, but not "You can't afford me nice".
[doublepost=1529184832][/doublepost]

Yeah, leave that to Amazon.

By the way, I loved the Leonard Cohen version of "Cezanne By The River"

 

[IWantItThatWay]

If Steve built a car, what do you think he would've done? He always thought way way outside the box. For example, look at iPhone markets pre-2007. No one was even remotely close.

 

[fairuz]

Eh, I'll stick with driving it myself for a while. Even if AI drivers get to the point of being safer than regular ones on average, at which point it'll be great if most people used them, I'm a safer driver than the average. And I'd rather only get into a crash if it's my own darn fault, not my AI hitting an edge case. If I were bad at driving, sure, I'd use the AI.

It's also more fun to drive. Gives me something to do at least. I don't think the steering wheel is going away within my lifetime, so I'm not worried about losing that.
[doublepost=1529224160][/doublepost]

While you're right, "Apple doesn't do no profit", no profit means the price will be significantly lower. Teslas rents the few "dealer" and repair locations. And since Tesla also made their patents available to the public, the only assets they really have are the facilities. Nice, but not "You can't afford me nice".

Tesla has done great things for everyone, but I really don't understand their business model for exactly the reasons you said. You did leave out their top-notch employees as assets, but I don't think that's enough for them.

 

[Whathappened]

I can see the logic, but all the big car companies probably have teams working on this already.

So what?
All the big car companies are watching Apple and their approach.
Should tell you something.

 

[mgauss7]

Self driving cars will take a long time to mature but they are coming for sure. I don't mind if for several years it will require driver to be ready to take over. Apple correctly concluded that having a competitive software product in this potentially huge market may be very profitable and great for expanding Apple ecosystem. Mac profitability will continue to shrink and honestly, upgrade cycles continue to lengthen making Mac updates low priority

No, certain things are respected "acts of God", like airplane crashes, maybe because of the air and wind seen as not controllable. But train collisions, for example, need someone to blame, as we see trains as simple one track devices.

Juries see a drunk that caused a death as a DUI. A self driving car is seen as a billion dollar company not caring, and the jury will awards millions every time. In the case of a DIU the grieving family is seen as having to sue a drunk loser, in the Apple car case it is "the insensitive uncaring billion dollar Apple" who they will sue every time.

Apple should stay by the sidelines and jump in as a customer of the cars.

 

[RogerWilco]

No, certain things are respected "acts of God", like airplane crashes, maybe because of the air and wind seen as not controllable. But train collisions, for example, need someone to blame, as we see trains as simple one track devices.

Juries see a drunk that caused a death as a DUI. A self driving car is seen as a billion dollar company not caring, and the jury will awards millions every time. In the case of a DIU the grieving family is seen as having to sue a drunk loser, in the Apple car case it is "the insensitive uncaring billion dollar Apple" who they will sue every time.

Apple should stay by the sidelines and jump in as a customer of the cars.

I too am tired of the hype associated with the so-called "AI" revolution that will enable autonomous vehicles. Underlying all of these futuristic claims is a software code base written by human beings. When lawyers enter the fray, the humans who wrote the code will undoubtedly be deposed and required to explain their various trade-offs, models and decision trees. A court trial? What company management in their right mind would want a software geek testifying in front of a jury that yes, he programmed the $5 vehicle CPU to choose to kill the bicyclist instead of hitting the tree and injuring the occupants of the car?

This is why the autonomous vehicle injury cases are settled out of court.

 

[Octopuss]

Yeay! Hire more tops. Invent and develop more emoji!!!
Screw self-driving or any noticeable functions in any Apple product, just bring more selfmoji drivemoji to carmoji.

 

[kingtj]

This is really kind of inaccurate. What you actually see if you study Tesla's financials is that it does reach profitability every so often, in cycles. But it chooses to dump all that money, plus more, into the next big initiative - putting it back in the negative.

Tesla is a company that's successfully put out 4 lines of cars now (Roadster, Model S, model X and now Model 3), as well as selling two generations of the PowerWall backup battery packs for home power storage. That's just on the consumer side, as it's also done a number of big commercial battery storage facilities like the one in Australia or projects for hospitals in Puerto Rico.

All of this, and it has a roadmap of near-term projects for the future that are sensible, too. (Working on a Tesla semi-truck, for example.)

Additionally, it's still ramping up battery production at the "Gigafactory" it built in Nevada. Interestingly, it strategically placed it close to a mine that it's contracting with to mine lithium for them, so they don't have to keep having it shipped in from far away sources. It's likely they'll add more of these factories over time, once this first one is running at full capacity. That opens them up to more options selling battery packs to other companies. (Tesla already provided the battery packs used in the EV version of the Toyota RAV4, as well as several Mercedes electric vehicles.)

If Tesla goes bankrupt, it will be because investors stopped believing in the company's mission and product ideas .... not because it just has "vaporware" or because it can't build a product that people want to buy.

All of THAT said? I don't think a buyout by Apple would be a bad idea at all -- except it would definitely be a big financial commitment for them. Traditionally, I haven't seen Apple buying many companies that amounted to more than a very small fraction of its wealth. The purchase of Beats might have been one of the bigger ones I can think of. But even there, it's not the same magnitude as buying a company like Tesla.

They aren't going to buy Tesla because Tesla is not profitable and is in danger of bankruptcy, frankly.

Apple doesn't do no profit.

 

[mistasopz]

A self-driving car brought to you by the company that made Apple maps and Siri? No thanks. Sounds like driving with your eyes closed.

 

[Baymowe335]

This is really kind of inaccurate. What you actually see if you study Tesla's financials is that it does reach profitability every so often, in cycles. But it chooses to dump all that money, plus more, into the next big initiative - putting it back in the negative.

Tesla is a company that's successfully put out 4 lines of cars now (Roadster, Model S, model X and now Model 3), as well as selling two generations of the PowerWall backup battery packs for home power storage. That's just on the consumer side, as it's also done a number of big commercial battery storage facilities like the one in Australia or projects for hospitals in Puerto Rico.

All of this, and it has a roadmap of near-term projects for the future that are sensible, too. (Working on a Tesla semi-truck, for example.)

Additionally, it's still ramping up battery production at the "Gigafactory" it built in Nevada. Interestingly, it strategically placed it close to a mine that it's contracting with to mine lithium for them, so they don't have to keep having it shipped in from far away sources. It's likely they'll add more of these factories over time, once this first one is running at full capacity. That opens them up to more options selling battery packs to other companies. (Tesla already provided the battery packs used in the EV version of the Toyota RAV4, as well as several Mercedes electric vehicles.)

If Tesla goes bankrupt, it will be because investors stopped believing in the company's mission and product ideas .... not because it just has "vaporware" or because it can't build a product that people want to buy.

All of THAT said? I don't think a buyout by Apple would be a bad idea at all -- except it would definitely be a big financial commitment for them. Traditionally, I haven't seen Apple buying many companies that amounted to more than a very small fraction of its wealth. The purchase of Beats might have been one of the bigger ones I can think of. But even there, it's not the same magnitude as buying a company like Tesla.

So how many TSLA shares are you long?

 

[AZREOSpecialist]

There are two possibilities: 1) Apple has no idea where it's going with this, or 2) Apple knows exactly what it's doing. If we presume the latter, then Apple has thought of an application the rest of us have not. If the former, then it's nothing more than an internal research project.

There is zero value creating an OEM system to sell to other vehicle manufacturers, most of which are reticent to abandon their efforts after having already invested billions into their own autonomous technologies. When has Apple ever done OEM for someone else? It's not in their DNA. Apple's unique value proposition and payoff to investors comes from massive profits gleaned from over-engineered hardware.

Semi/Autonomous features, and as they relate to safety, is where the next battlefront in vehicle technologies is going to be. That and electrification. Vehicle manufacturers will always want to retain as much control as possible in these areas and will never cede that control to Apple or anyone else.

My bets are that Apple is working on something for the rest of us, not for vehicle manufacturers. Imagine a heads-up display projector that incorporates AR and turns your windshield into a display. Remember, Apple's hardware now has depth perception and such a system can be used to 3D map a windshield so that everything displayed on that windshield will be in proper focus in relation to the driver. There could be a huge market for that.

My bets are that Apple's "autonomous car project" is more of a skunkworks and idea factory. Who knows what will come out of it, but the bottom line for Apple will likely be that it has to be simple, easy, satisfy a need, and grow their marketshare.

They aren't going to buy Tesla because Tesla is not profitable and is in danger of bankruptcy, frankly.

Apple doesn't do no profit.

Apparently you don't know much about Tesla or its financials. Don't rely solely on the media to inform, most of what they conclude about Tesla is completely wrong. I own a Tesla and have been closely following this company since 2013. All I can say is don't bet against Elon Musk, you will lose.

 

[travelsheep]

I hope they don't remove the car doors or the roof because "courage" and "the floppy drive also was removed".