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Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

cnbc.com

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Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#71

Post by naaaaak »

dilyevsky wrote: post #68
neya wrote: post #61

I don't think Apple has advancements in machine learning tech as much as its competitors. For example, take a look at how primitive Siri is. It struggles a lot in comparison to its competitors even for some basic commands. Or, take a look at Apple Music's recommendation system in comparison to Spotify's discover weekly. Now, take a look at Amazon and Google. They both have their own cloud infrastructure (which ironic…

They reason is because they don’t snoop on their users and so don’t have good training sets available. Training set for driving is more readily available.

Apple originally kept Siri audio for up to 2 years "for testing and product improvement purposes". I am not sure if that is still the case.

https://www.wired.com/2013/04/siri-two-years/

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#72

Post by nerdbeere »

reindeerer wrote: post #67
chipotle_coyote wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose they're getting downvoted because "why are you working on X when Y has problems" is kind of a silly argument. The problems with the butterfly keyboard design are almost certainly not a result of all the keyswitch engineers having been foolishly reassigned to work in the automotive group.

It's very much a focus and resource allocation problem. Double the number of engineers working on the keyboard and it doesn't happen

…and 9 women are known to bear a child in one month

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#73

Post by tiew9Vii »

neya wrote: post #61

I don't think Apple has advancements in machine learning tech as much as its competitors. For example, take a look at how primitive Siri is. It struggles a lot in comparison to its competitors even for some basic commands. Or, take a look at Apple Music's recommendation system in comparison to Spotify's discover weekly. Now, take a look at Amazon and Google. They both have their own cloud infrastructure (which ironic…

From what I read Apple are taking a different approach? Google/Amazon are harvesting massive amounts of data and training against it and Apple are taking a privacy first approach saying you shouldn’t have to harvest lots of data for intelligent AI.

Currently the harvesting data for models look to be working better for Google / Amazon with current technology. The question is how will Apple progress long term and given time can they achieve AI with some level of privacy. I don’t know enough to have any comments but like Apple’s public stance on this.

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#74

Post by [deleted] »

shalmanese wrote: post #58
leesec wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

People fail to appreciate the fundamental differences between functional and divisional orgs and how that constrains Apple. At Microsoft, the head of Xbox marketing reports to the head of Xbox and the head of Azure marketing reports to the head of Azure. At Apple, there is no divisions, every Apple marketer is responsible for the success of every Apple product and reports to the head of Apple marketing. But the only…

[deleted]

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#76

Post by jug »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #56
ulfw wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea why you're getting downvoted. If a company decides not to produce wireless routers (which were class leading) or monitors etc anymore, all because they're non "core" to a computer/mobile hardware company then I don't see how building automotive AI is core to a computer/mobile hardware computer company that has zero core competency in either car manufacturing or AI.

I kinda feel cars are core to Apple. Essentially they are a screen company if you think about it. Their job is to own all your screens and make a quality experience across them, both the bonus of upselling services to said screens. A car dash is the last (others?) of the more used screens they haven't covered yet. So probably a market they dont want to miss out on, especially as it ties in with other areas so well li…

They do have Apple CarPlay though.

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#77

Post by matthewmacleod »

reindeerer wrote: post #67
chipotle_coyote wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose they're getting downvoted because "why are you working on X when Y has problems" is kind of a silly argument. The problems with the butterfly keyboard design are almost certainly not a result of all the keyswitch engineers having been foolishly reassigned to work in the automotive group.

It's very much a focus and resource allocation problem. Double the number of engineers working on the keyboard and it doesn't happen

I can almost guarantee that doubling the number of engineers working on the keyboard would make the problem worse, rather than better.

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#78

Post by matthewmacleod »

rurban wrote: post #24
leesec wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yes, but obviously they cannot fix the more urging problems in their core business: Keyboards, laptop CPU's and memory, macOS development. It's a desaster area every developer working with their products wants to leave as soon as possible. And why should I trust them with an iPhone or car then, when the simpliest products were run into the ground.

Keyboards, laptop CPU's and memory, macOS development. It's a desaster area every developer working with their products wants to leave as soon as possible.

Jesus, calm the hell down.

It’s okay to have complaints about aspects of Apple’s products, but this wild exaggeration isn’t doing anybody any favours.

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#79

Post by neuronic »

tiew9Vii wrote: post #73
neya wrote: post #61

I don't think Apple has advancements in machine learning tech as much as its competitors. For example, take a look at how primitive Siri is. It struggles a lot in comparison to its competitors even for some basic commands. Or, take a look at Apple Music's recommendation system in comparison to Spotify's discover weekly. Now, take a look at Amazon and Google. They both have their own cloud infrastructure (which ironic…

From what I read Apple are taking a different approach? Google/Amazon are harvesting massive amounts of data and training against it and Apple are taking a privacy first approach saying you shouldn’t have to harvest lots of data for intelligent AI. Currently the harvesting data for models look to be working better for Google / Amazon with current technology. The question is how will Apple progress long term and given…

Thank you for this comment, long term is rarely even considered in consumer technology related to smartphones or "devices".

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#80

Post by paxys »

neya wrote: post #61

I don't think Apple has advancements in machine learning tech as much as its competitors. For example, take a look at how primitive Siri is. It struggles a lot in comparison to its competitors even for some basic commands. Or, take a look at Apple Music's recommendation system in comparison to Spotify's discover weekly. Now, take a look at Amazon and Google. They both have their own cloud infrastructure (which ironic…

Apple is far behind its competitors in pretty much every area except hardware. They are still terrible at running stable web services. There is a new critical bug or security hole in their OS every month. And all of their non-hardware offerings - Apple Maps, Apple Music, iCloud, iTunes, Siri etc. - range from very bad to average.

IMO they need to be investing a LOT more on the software side of things if they intend to stay competitive, especially since iPhone sales are already drying up.

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