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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

#601

Post by dtjb »

ethbr1 wrote: post #485
MBCook wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The phone made sense to me because by that point Apple had clearly proven themselves as a consumer electronics company. It’s wasn’t as big a jump and cell phone software was largely junk. The carrier thing was true, but they could have launched outside the US. Instead they found a carrier desperate enough. But they’ve never done safety critical stuff like a car. Of highly mechanical stuff like a car. Or things that n…

> And really I’m not sure how much they could add a special “Apple touch” outside infotainment/interior controls compared to luxury automakers. The right time was between 2010 (iPad launch) and 2014 (CarPlay launch), with a complete infotainment-only product. Essentially, mimic the iPhone-on-one-carrier bargain. Go to a struggling automaker (Fiat Chrysler?) and say "What if we told you that you won't have to worry ab…

I think the risk to the carmaker is your customers getting used to the apple infotainment system. Maybe they start to see the car as less a Fiat and more an Apple car. Then the exclusive expires or needs to be renegotiated.

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

#602

Post by ponector »

sitkack wrote: post #534
ponector wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the other side, phone and home electronics producer Xiaomi invested few billions into car business and now is producing car similar to Porsche. Why you think Apple can't do the same if focused?

Xiaomi is better at being the New Apple than Apple is. Apple should be selling micro transportation appliances that fit into a higher urbanized environment. Extremely small cars would be the largest thing I would rent .

Why would they do so? People wants huge premium cars. Land Cruiser! Panamera! Not many are dreaming for a luxury Fiat 500.

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

#603

Post by DinaCoder99 »

itsoktocry wrote: post #343
DinaCoder99 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GM is hardly a car brand that knows what consumers give a shit about, this is just enshitification to squeeze their remaining customers.

Their trucks still sell massively and the Blackwing Cadillacs are both on many 10-best lists.

Ok? That doesn't contradict anything I said.

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

#604

Post by thih9 »

SheinhardtWigCo wrote: post #590
anonylizard wrote: post #581

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, skimping on 150 people for the biggest change to the tech industry in since the invention of the computer. You understand Apple spent like billions for this electric car industry that never produced anything? Why would they want to starve the AI project now? You understand how many people in Microsoft and Google are working on AI adjacent projects? Even if they aren't AI researchers, there's tons of work just to…

More cooks does not a delicious meal make.

“Man-Month” can be mythical, then again sometimes you’re making a very big omelette and could use the extra hands - if only to handle tooling, prep work, or other distractions.

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

#605

Post by DinaCoder99 »

nerdix wrote: post #333
DinaCoder99 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just don't see how they can make any more money with "generative ai" than a useful tool that actually can get me around. Seems like chasing after fool's gold.

Seems more like a defensive play rather than one designed to directly open new revenue streams. In the short term, Google is going to fully integrate Gemini into Google Assistant (the takeoff has been bumpy but there is a chance they stick the landing). The risk there being that Siri will fall further behind. In the long term, capable models will be running locally on device. Google's past mobile AI plays haven't mov…

A "defensive play" would hardly involve investing in a technology with zero demonstrated value.

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

#607

Post by topkai22 »

SheinhardtWigCo wrote: post #590
anonylizard wrote: post #581

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, skimping on 150 people for the biggest change to the tech industry in since the invention of the computer. You understand Apple spent like billions for this electric car industry that never produced anything? Why would they want to starve the AI project now? You understand how many people in Microsoft and Google are working on AI adjacent projects? Even if they aren't AI researchers, there's tons of work just to…

More cooks does not a delicious meal make.

But necessary to feed more people.

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

#608

Post by moogly »

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #317
lotsofpulp wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>- Apple design in general has lost a lot of it's soul. They used to be more fun and whimsy, just look at iMac designs of the past. The Cyber truck, love it or hate it, is not boring. Everything apple sells is a glass and metal slab, or as close as possible to it. The Cybertruck is also a glass and metal slab.

a fun and whimsical one.

I disagree. To me it's edgy and depressing. So it's pretty subjective.

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

#609

Post by samtheprogram »

pquki4 wrote: post #559
tibbar wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is more overlap between the two than you'd think, specifically in producing and evaluating datasets for training and fine-tuning models. Most software engineers and ML engineers who worked on self-driving cars would do fine at working on GenAI; in fact, they're more qualified than the vast majority of engineers to work in a brand-new industry. Same goes for engineers working on compute hardware. Even engineers…

The question is: does Apple actually need so many people working on GenAI? Would a team with 300 people be twice as good as a team with 150 people for what Apple is going to release as products? I wouldn't be surprised if Apple is going to lay off most of them.

The old Apple would've pitted two (much smaller) teams against each other. Not sure if the company culture really aligns with that type of structure now, but it's a big assumption that 300 people would all be a single team/org.

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

#610

Post by theturtletalks »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #526
theturtletalks wrote: post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, just seen it in action over and over. No one thought they would do VR and they did. No one thought they would compete with Netflix and their movies are winning awards now. No one thought they would cannibalize the iPod with a phone and they did. The state of US tech companies is that they will also go into new markets. When Netflix came out, did you really think Amazon and Apple would get into that market? To A…

> No one thought they would do VR and they did What has this VR achieved? Nothing so far. Cannibalising your own product isn’t an achievement They have never shipped a large physical product or anything mechanical in the entire history of the company, this is outright delusional.

Cannibalizing your own product is an achievement when done correctly. You don’t see Apple running to add a touch screen to MacBooks because that would cannibalize the iPad.

Let’s take iTunes. People were clowning Apple for releasing Apple Music because they had millions of people buying Music on iTunes. Spotify showed it could work but they weren’t exactly making money over fist.

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