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Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

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Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#3
post #2

Any stats on how many employees they had to start with? If it was a team of 500 vs 2500 that changes how I'd view this heavily.

Rumors are that there are several thousand people disclosed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_electric_car_project

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#5
post #4

It always seems odd that huge tech giants like this lay off certain sectors. Are they dumping them because they don't have anywhere else that they'd be useful to Apple? Surely recruiting is harder than moving someone laterally in the company.

>In August 2018, Apple enlisted a Tesla engineering vice president and Apple veteran, Doug Field, to lead the Titan team alongside Bob Mansfield. This week’s dismissals from the group were seen, internally, as anticipated restructuring under the relatively new leadership.

>Other employees who were impacted by the restructuring of Project Titan are staying at Apple, but moving to different parts of the company.

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#7
post #4

It always seems odd that huge tech giants like this lay off certain sectors. Are they dumping them because they don't have anywhere else that they'd be useful to Apple? Surely recruiting is harder than moving someone laterally in the company.

Often, they label culling the bottom 5% as "restructuring" or try to make sure the bottom 5% get included. It's easier to combine layoff events than have a steady stream of them.

A lot of these companies also do layoffs, then pay severance, and possibly some time where you're technically an employee and are free to look around the org for a new job. But honestly, after being told you're laid off, your loyalty to that employers is pretty low, and you're better off looking elsewhere.

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#8
post #6

When you can't make a laptop with reliable screens or keyboards, or an iMac lineup that has CPU's 2 generations behind.. Maybe it's time to shut down the stupid vanity projects and focus on your core business instead?

> Maybe it's time to shut down the stupid vanity projects and focus on your core business instead?

What is the "vanity project" in this case? I think it's pretty clear that Mac sales won't last forever, and it's not like Apple is strapped for cash and can't afford to pay for both teams.

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#9
post #6

When you can't make a laptop with reliable screens or keyboards, or an iMac lineup that has CPU's 2 generations behind.. Maybe it's time to shut down the stupid vanity projects and focus on your core business instead?

Apple has 250 billion dollars at their disposal. They can obviously have multiple efforts running in parallel.

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#10
post #6

When you can't make a laptop with reliable screens or keyboards, or an iMac lineup that has CPU's 2 generations behind.. Maybe it's time to shut down the stupid vanity projects and focus on your core business instead?

Apple makes the products Apple wants to make; that those product choices might not align with everyone's preferences (I'm pretty happy with my 2018 MBP, for instance) doesn't mean the company can't walk and chew gum at the same time.

Particularly when they make $200 billion per year in revenue.

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