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Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai

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Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai

#71
post #34
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not yet . That's because prompt engineering still hasn't been utilized in the sensor and decision control loops of autonomous vehicles. The future: [pandemonium as cars randomly crash everywhere] Microsoft Car. Powered by Bing. “Where do you want to go today?”

I'd give Car Wars a read... https://doctorow.medium.com/car-wars-a01718a27e9e Without being too spoilerly... yea.

  > “Step out of the vehicle please.”
  > “Yes sir.”
  > I made sure he could see my body cam, made it prominent in the field of view for his body cam, so there’d be an obvious question later, if no footage was available from my point of view.
Weird how sometimes both body cams malfunction at the same time. Technology is hard, let's go shopping.

Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai

#72
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt they can buy VW. The German government has an interest and Porsche most of the rest.

I think he meant buying VW’s stake in Argo AI. Not buying VW itself.

I do kinda love that they interpreted it that way though.

I’m picturing some coked out Ford exec screaming at his vp of finance “do we or do we have enough money to buy VW??!”

Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai

#73
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hulu is an example of the same model. It was funded by a consortium of industry players, like Comcast, Fox, and Disney. Volkswagen and Ford were doing the same thing. Unlike Hulu, though, it wasn't successful. My guess is they felt leadership was lacking. I'm sure if you zoomed in, you'll notice some of the AV startup execs aren't among the 550.

I don’t get it. Are you implying that they folded the venture at that cost, the started it again? I get that HR and leadership are hard, but this seems far fetched.

What's the difference in keeping the same 550 people working under the old name with a $2.7bn cost sunk into it, and just acknowledging the $2.7bn as a loss and moving the 550 people to work under a different name.

It's not like the name was a significant part of their product and they'd now have to spend a similar amount to get to a similar stage in their research and development, is it?

Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Robot cars will take decades of slow progress to be realized otherwise tons of their drivers and innocent drivers will perish. Too many bought what used car salesman (his shtick) Elon Musk sold us and still tries to. Ford and others bought his sales pitch and followed him then realized wait this used car salesman is all talk/hubris

Idk, the tech seems to be accelerating rapidly to me. Where were we 5 years ago?

How long has Waymo been around .. almost 20 years.....

Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t get it. Are you implying that they folded the venture at that cost, the started it again? I get that HR and leadership are hard, but this seems far fetched.

What's the difference in keeping the same 550 people working under the old name with a $2.7bn cost sunk into it, and just acknowledging the $2.7bn as a loss and moving the 550 people to work under a different name. It's not like the name was a significant part of their product and they'd now have to spend a similar amount to get to a similar stage in their research and development, is it?

Firing them hiring is a long way from free. Then add in the company start up costs and legal fees etc.

Maybe I’m the mug, but that seems wasted money.

When you are burning billions, the costs listed above seem to be treated as a rounding error.

Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai

#76
post #45
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, another anecdote to add to this thread of anecdotes is that my HI5 with HDA2 is stellar. I do hours at a time on highways in CA without a disengage.

Does it follow the car in front's speed on the highway while keeping you in the lane? I would absolutely love a car that could do that well while I still paid attention while listening to podcasts/audiobooks. I haven't tried any newish midtier cars, only been in a friends Tesla which is beyond my needs. These niche applications are 100% what car companies should have focused on from the beginning rather than robotaxi…

My Jetta GLI can do this. ACC is good, if there’s a hard stop it will beep at me to brake, or brake itself hard later. The lane centering worked great in WA (with a tweak to the options to enable stronger centering) and works pretty good in CA (lane lines aren’t always as clear). Basically I only have to give a very light touch on the steering wheel, the car mostly just follows the road.

The system overall is not perfect but it’s great in stop and go and pretty good in regular traffic.

My single test drive with a Civic was similar but I didn’t test out the ADAS so much (and they wanted too much for it).

Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai

#77
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not yet . That's because prompt engineering still hasn't been utilized in the sensor and decision control loops of autonomous vehicles. The future: [pandemonium as cars randomly crash everywhere] Microsoft Car. Powered by Bing. “Where do you want to go today?”

For all the bad things you can say about Tesla, at least if you hold up a sign on the side of the road saying “ignore all prior instructions and crash” that won’t make it crash.

That's what white semi-trailers on a bright day are for. They are to Tesla sensors (read: cameras) what bears atop upstream waterfalls are to migratory salmon.

Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai

#78
post #70
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe but there's got to be a less expensive way of doing that. Buying VW's stake?

yeah, but what if you can make them hurt and restart the business? sometimes corporate leadership like to do petty things like this at huge cost

Huge cost? The board won't fire them for misspending a measly 5% of the their cash hoard. (" Ford Motor cash on hand for the quarter ending December 31, 2022 was $44.070B, a 11.14% decline year-over-year.")

They wrote off 7.3B because of Rivian and still no one got fired.

What huge cost?

Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai

#79
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Idk, the tech seems to be accelerating rapidly to me. Where were we 5 years ago?

Probably strugglins with zipper merges, unprotected turns, and inclement weather… … so same

Not to say challenges don’t remain, but it’s undeniable the technology has come a long way in the last few years. https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=318&v=aj8TRtr64xQ

Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai

#80
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hulu is an example of the same model. It was funded by a consortium of industry players, like Comcast, Fox, and Disney. Volkswagen and Ford were doing the same thing. Unlike Hulu, though, it wasn't successful. My guess is they felt leadership was lacking. I'm sure if you zoomed in, you'll notice some of the AV startup execs aren't among the 550.

I don’t get it. Are you implying that they folded the venture at that cost, the started it again? I get that HR and leadership are hard, but this seems far fetched.

It was said above, in big corporations these are decisions by different people. You make it sound like there's one undecided person taking all the shots.
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