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Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

bloomberg.com

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Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#22

This is a smart move. Apple seems so far behind in generative AI it's making Google look innovative.

But what's it for? I can tell what an electric car is for, can you tell me what "generative AI" is for? A car can transport goods and people, really good non-deterministic typeahead is just.. well, I don't know what I'd use it for, do you? EDIT: what I really mean is what makes people think this is a commercially viable thing to spend time and money on? Like, say one of these companies hits some magic jackpot and dis…

At very least, they could make Siri useful.

Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#23

This is a smart move. Apple seems so far behind in generative AI it's making Google look innovative.

But what's it for? I can tell what an electric car is for, can you tell me what "generative AI" is for? A car can transport goods and people, really good non-deterministic typeahead is just.. well, I don't know what I'd use it for, do you? EDIT: what I really mean is what makes people think this is a commercially viable thing to spend time and money on? Like, say one of these companies hits some magic jackpot and dis…

Have you missed all the people complaining that it'll put them out of business?

Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#24

The demand for expensive EVs is not unlimited, despite the ardent desires of California and federal politicians.

There's plenty of latent demand; there isn't currently a viable charging network and NACS doesn't take over until 2025.

Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#25

This is a smart move. Apple seems so far behind in generative AI it's making Google look innovative.

But what's it for? I can tell what an electric car is for, can you tell me what "generative AI" is for? A car can transport goods and people, really good non-deterministic typeahead is just.. well, I don't know what I'd use it for, do you? EDIT: what I really mean is what makes people think this is a commercially viable thing to spend time and money on? Like, say one of these companies hits some magic jackpot and dis…

> can you tell me what "generative AI" is for?

Better keyboard text prediction and power management. A competent Siri.

Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#26
post #7

I wonder if this is connected to the Vision Pro release. That’s another giant hardware fishing project that failed to meet the “vision” of an all-day wearable iPhone. Perhaps it became obvious that the car was in even murkier waters. And to dump some of the employees on image and text generators off whatever self driving computer vision work they were presumably doing before? Interesting choice.

Honestly, a car made more sense than a VR headset if the vision behind the VR headset is "an all-day wearable iPhone". Though I doubt it is, nor was it for the forseeable future. Despite it's outward appearance, I expect Apple's management to consist mostly of engineering type realists, otherwise it becomes hard to explain how they keep being the #1 in Lifestyle products.

I think the VR goggles were always a stab at what's supposed to become Meta's core business.

Regardless, I would have really like to see a car from Apple. Tesla is still too small to get the attention of EU regulators when it comes to their stupid warranty and serviceability. Apple is large enough and already known to not play nice when it comes to repair - I'm sure we would've gotten some amazing legislature about electric vehicle repairability out of it!

Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#27
post #4

This is a smart move. Apple seems so far behind in generative AI it's making Google look innovative.

Why does everyone have to it?

I think because if they don't, they'll be in the position of depending on someone else's platform to provide AI features for their products. This is just an analogy, but it would be like if you were an app developer, and instead of being able to control your distribution, you had to use someone's centralized store to sell everything, and then pay whatever they demanded, or be cut off at any time. Very dangerous!

Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#28
post #7

I wonder if this is connected to the Vision Pro release. That’s another giant hardware fishing project that failed to meet the “vision” of an all-day wearable iPhone. Perhaps it became obvious that the car was in even murkier waters. And to dump some of the employees on image and text generators off whatever self driving computer vision work they were presumably doing before? Interesting choice.

AVP has not failed yet. Saying so today would be akin to stating that the iPhone failed in the fall of 2007.

Some did, Steve Ballmer laughed his butt off, convinced that no one sane will ever buy a $500 phone.

Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#29
post #19

I was always rather puzzled by the car. I can’t see them ever competing even with the small makers like Jaguar or Polestar or Lamborghini. They’re certainly not going to take on Ford or Mazda or Honda. The idea of making the infotainment guts is interesting but I can’t see any carmaker giving up that much control. If they don’t like CarPlay they’d never like full Apple infotainment. Sure Apple could do ADAS stuff, bu…

To be fair, that was what a lot of people thought about Apple making a cell phone. That they'd never compete with Nokia or Motorola and that US carriers would never give them enough control.

Re: Apple to wind down electric car effort after decadelong odyssey

#30

The demand for expensive EVs is not unlimited, despite the ardent desires of California and federal politicians.

There's plenty of latent demand; there isn't currently a viable charging network and NACS doesn't take over until 2025.

There's also quite an oversupply at the moment.
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