Apple 'Reboots' Self-Driving Car Initiative Amid Project Layoffs and Closures

[PizzaBoxStyle]

Sort of called that one. Tesla and GM aren't playing around. Tesla is ahead by years and has shipping products today, now. And GM is trailing them closely. Once they get in the game, it's ON... They know how to produce cars at scale, and they are already very familiar with all of the regulations leveled on automakers.

I can't see Apple doing all that well with any of that stuff.

 

[MacLawyer]

Apple has closed parts of its self-driving car project and laid off dozens of employees attached to it as it reboots its plan for self-driving vehicles, according to The New York Times. The move comes just over a month after the company reportedly began shifting its car project to autonomous driving systems rather than vehicles under Bob Mansfield.

Mansfield, a longtime Apple executive who was previously Vice President of Technologies, was appointed to oversee the car project in late July, adjusting the project to focus on the "underlying technology" for autonomous vehicles rather than actually building an automobile. The layoffs, according to The New York Times, are part of the strategic shift of the project.
Apple had made some progress in the development of Project Titan, the codename for its car project, having a number of self-driving vehicles in testing. The cars were tested with simple, limited operating routes in closed environments, but the technology was far from ready for primetime, reports The New York Times.

The Cupertino company had recruited hundreds of engineers from Tesla, Ford, GM, other car companies and employees in other divisions of Apple to work on its car project, growing the Apple Car team to nearly 1,000 members.

Earlier this year, Steve Zadesky, former Ford engineer and VP of Product Design, left the company for personal reasons. He had been in charge of the project and reported to Dan Riccio, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering. Rumors have suggested that the departure of Zadesky resulted in delays of the project and internal strife due to challenges like unattainable timelines and organizational changes. The original launch target for the Apple Car was said to be in 2020, but changes and delays to the project had caused it to slip into 2021.

Article Link: Apple 'Reboots' Self-Driving Car Initiative Amid Project Layoffs and Closures

[doublepost=1473476076][/doublepost]And this my friends, is one of the reasons the stock market is unsure about APPL.

 

[Kevin2055]

Time to sell AAPL?

Apple has closed parts of its self-driving car project and laid off dozens of employees attached to it as it reboots its plan for self-driving vehicles, according to The New York Times. The move comes just over a month after the company reportedly began shifting its car project to autonomous driving systems rather than vehicles under Bob Mansfield.

Mansfield, a longtime Apple executive who was previously Vice President of Technologies, was appointed to oversee the car project in late July, adjusting the project to focus on the "underlying technology" for autonomous vehicles rather than actually building an automobile. The layoffs, according to The New York Times, are part of the strategic shift of the project.
Apple had made some progress in the development of Project Titan, the codename for its car project, having a number of self-driving vehicles in testing. The cars were tested with simple, limited operating routes in closed environments, but the technology was far from ready for primetime, reports The New York Times.

The Cupertino company had recruited hundreds of engineers from Tesla, Ford, GM, other car companies and employees in other divisions of Apple to work on its car project, growing the Apple Car team to nearly 1,000 members.

Earlier this year, Steve Zadesky, former Ford engineer and VP of Product Design, left the company for personal reasons. He had been in charge of the project and reported to Dan Riccio, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering. Rumors have suggested that the departure of Zadesky resulted in delays of the project and internal strife due to challenges like unattainable timelines and organizational changes. The original launch target for the Apple Car was said to be in 2020, but changes and delays to the project had caused it to slip into 2021.

Article Link: Apple 'Reboots' Self-Driving Car Initiative Amid Project Layoffs and Closures

 

[a.gomez]

Another fail.

 

[Bubba Satori]

Maybe the Apple car will be a hobby like Apple TV.
They know some Apple brand completionists will have to have one.
Nail a .1% market share with huge margins, declare victory and update it in ten years.
Stay tuned.

 

[MacMan988]

When you find a bug in iOS or OS X you could just ignore it or find a workaround.

How are you gonna deal with Apple's bugs in a self-driving car from Apple?

 

[xmonkey]

Genuinely surprised they seem to be backing away from making a complete car... they may be wising up in Cupertino sooner than I thought. This had boondoggle written all over it and Apple just isn't suited to try and be a car manufacturer, IMO.

 

[KALLT]

And what does Google have anything to do with cars? Or elon for that matter.

I don’t care about them, they are not Apple. Anyway, Tesla is a dedicated car company, so that comparison falls flat. Google? They were always about machine learning and data collection and combining these with new products and services. That is the essence of all of their products. It has been obvious to me that Google isn’t so much interested in the car itself. They are ultimately interested in the practical application of machine learning a

Apple? They have barely a foothold in mapping technology and services and rely heavily on third-party services to even provide some useful data on these maps, even the maps and their underlying data are licensed. They just started with machine learning, they now start doing some data collection with their differential privacy in iOS 10 and Sierra. I just don’t see the impetus behind the car project, it feels like a pure vanity project, driven by desperation to find something new. There is ample Apple could focus on instead that would fit better by what they are doing right now.

 

[Apple Corps]

I can understand Apple wanting to provide the software for existing cars, but Apple selling a car always made about as much sense to me as BMW getting into the personal computer business. Good to see they may have wised up and dropped this idea.

It would have been much better if they never wasted all the resources to start with. I don't see anything but a huge waste of money in this continuing endeavor. Stock closed today at $102.79 - go Timmy Boy, surely you can tank this company if you keep trying.
[doublepost=1473477757][/doublepost]

I don’t care about them, they are not Apple. Anyway, Tesla is a dedicated car company, so that comparison falls flat. Google? They were always about machine learning and data collection and combining these with new products and services. That is the essence of all of their products. It has been obvious to me that Google isn’t so much interested in the car itself. They are ultimately interested in the practical application of machine learning a

Apple? They have barely a foothold in mapping technology and services and rely heavily on third-party services to even provide some useful data on these maps, even the maps and their underlying data are licensed. They just started with machine learning, they now start doing some data collection with their differential privacy in iOS 10 and Sierra. I just don’t see the impetus behind the car project, it feels like a pure vanity project, driven by desperation to find something new. There is ample Apple could focus on instead that would fit better by what they are doing right now.

Well said KALT - desperation is the operative word. The more time goes on the more clueless Cook appears. Your points are spot on - there is virtually NOTHING in Apple's wheelhouse that gives confidence in this car / auto piloting scheme.

 

[ToroidalZeus]

This new move makes more sense.

Why make a car ; develop the system then charge the Apple tax = profit

Because that is the Google model. Apple used to have the talent to make an entire project, integration of hardware and software.

 

[cybeross]

This is ********. Apple's WHOLE reason for existing (as opposed to say Microsoft) was to create end-to-end systems in which they had total control over the user experience, by ensuring the optimal software/hardware fit. Trying to run all the computers with Microsoft lead to a f***ed up, fragmented experience, and one that Mr. Jobs stood against his whole life. Now they are going to develop the Windows of the car world? Have these people learned *nothing* about the history of their own company??

 

[mpavilion]

I don’t care about them, they are not Apple. Anyway, Tesla is a dedicated car company, so that comparison falls flat. Google? They were always about machine learning and data collection and combining these with new products and services. That is the essence of all of their products. It has been obvious to me that Google isn’t so much interested in the car itself. They are ultimately interested in the practical application of machine learning a

Apple? They have barely a foothold in mapping technology and services and rely heavily on third-party services to even provide some useful data on these maps, even the maps and their underlying data are licensed. They just started with machine learning, they now start doing some data collection with their differential privacy in iOS 10 and Sierra. I just don’t see the impetus behind the car project, it feels like a pure vanity project, driven by desperation to find something new. There is ample Apple could focus on instead that would fit better by what they are doing right now.

This is exactly it. When Apple revolutionized the media player, smartphone, and tablet categories, no one saw it coming. It flowed naturally from their expertise. Here, they're just another tech company working on a car project, competing for engineers, etc.

 

[xmonkey]

It would have been much better if they never wasted all the resources to start with. I don't see anything but a huge waste of money in this continuing endeavor. Stock closed today at $102.79 - go Timmy Boy, surely you can tank this company if you keep trying.

To be fair, while Apple's stock has dipped since the event, they closed a lot lower today because the whole market took a dump. Compared to most of the year, their stock isn't doing too bad right now.

 

[SeaFox]

Shut it down and concentrate on the core business that once made you the greatest.
This is like McDonalds going into house building.

You should do more research into Ray Kroc and how he came to be the big shot at McDonald's.
Hint: He didn't do it by becoming the best burger-flipper in the world.

 

[Karma*Police]

From a product standpoint, Apple developing a car makes perfect sense since it excels at design and UI and because the car has essentially become a personal computer on wheels.

But with autonomous vehicles and shared rides projected to rise at the expense of car ownership, perhaps Apple is recognizing that that's the disruption, and that their design and UI expertise is less important for the future of automobiles. Furthermore, the trend of sharing rides is at odds with Apple's goal of making technology more personal.

If that's the case, then it would make sense for Apple to re-evaluate this project to see how they can contribute to that future. For example, if I hop into a self-driving taxi, it would be much easier if I could just say "take me home" or "drive me to work" and Siri could upload those instructions and the appropriate address from my apple watch or iphone to the car's computer.

 

[developer13245]

Pulling back on "way out there" investments because the cash cow iPhone has peaked...

 

[bbbb4b]

The current concept of the automobile is 'still' bound in a 19th century model.
The last thing Apple wants, is to see thousands of dirt covered Apple cars, bumper to bumper on the 405. With bunch of azzholes honking their horns and flipping each other off.
I have always maintained that Car is much more likely to be "a service", rather than one more (nicer) addition to the cluster-fk that is the existing personal transportation system.
It's sort of like the similar reason that Apple has, and never did have, any intention of making television sets.

 

[KiwiAdventure]

If you need a self-driving vehicle because you cannot drive then catch a bus as we don't need more cars on the road.

 

[Strozzascotte]

I heard Zadeskyl left after Schiller told him to be courageous and remove the wheels from the Apple car. Schiller told him,"Maintaining ancient, single-purpose wheels doesn't make sense because that space is at a premium on a car".

As longitud as they provide an adapter for the wheels I already have, I second that courageous decision.

 

[AlexEmilien]

Shut it down and concentrate on the core business that once made you the greatest.
This is like McDonalds going into house building.

Funnily enough, Macdonalds isn't primarily a burger company; it's one of the worlds largest real estate companies:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/73533-mcdonalds-is-a-real-estate-company

 

[Huracan]

I'm picking my brain about a coherent response First of all, this has all the way been a rumor.
1. I am sure we need innovation in electric cars, but the most immediate innovation that is needed is on range and charging time.
2. Apple is known for innovation and beautiful industrial design. What the world needs is a mass market electric car, affordable to everyone, with good range and fast recharge. Something tells me these are not areas of interest for Apple.
3. It is so cool to talk about autonomous cars. However, the devil is always in the details. Would you let a computer decide if the life of your son or daughter is less or more valuable mathematically when either being a passenger of the car or someone outside the car when the car is making a decision on who to kill under an impossible situation?
4. Let's say that consumers would only buy cars that value the lives of the passengers above anybody outside the car. Would society allow this? Would the government allow this?

It will take time to flesh out many questions like this. I believe that with time, autonomous cars can overall be safer than cars driven by humans, but will we be comfortable with the life/death decisions made by the computers running those cars?

I think Apple can possibly innovate in a bunch other areas ahead of an autonomous car. Here go some ideas:
1. A truly global cell phone network. Every country were iPhones are sold would be part of this free global network.
2. Free voice, text and data roaming across the world.
3. If you are a customer of AppleCell you get 100GB of cloud storage as part of your cell phone service.
4. AppleISP, either fixed or wireless ISP provider + TV service. Forget about GoogleFiber, AppleFiber (with better bowel movements)

I thank Apple for one important thing, selling me a phone that doesn't have any hideous AT&T or Verizon logo on the phone or the splash screen. It made the device the focal point of the cell phone experience, not the carrier. This should continue. Android folks should complain with their cell phone providers about being carrier branded and bloatware to the hilt, instead of wasting energy mocking Apple and their iPhone. We need more focus from the FCC. Cell phone carriers are ISPs for many customers and should be treated like that for net neutrality and other issues. The future is over the top applications. I am sorry for carriers, but their main role should be to give us the best speeds, lowest latencies and better roaming deals as differentiators, instead of trying to focus on throttling or blocking services that don't provide them with revenues.

 

[Apple Corps]

To be fair, while Apple's stock has dipped since the event, they closed a lot lower today because the whole market took a dump. Compared to most of the year, their stock isn't doing too bad right now.

You are clearly not a long term investor in AAPL - it is trading where it was 4 years ago - pure SH*T performance.

The stock was starting to move up a bit but the lackluster September event followed by this debacle - here we go again.

 

[bstpierre]

People will be spending more time in a car using devices than driving.

More than they do now?

 

[TheGenerous]

It seems I got promoted and reassigned. . . let's do the car thing!

 

[Solomani]

Most projects like this are money-sucking unprofitable pet projects for many many years before it comes to fruition. If Apple wants any kind of automotive project to succeed in the future, they better be able to "ride it out" when the going gets tough (e.g. like losing one good engineer).