Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

Post by iamgopal » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 10:20 AM UTC

no1youknowz wrote: post #116

chx wrote: post #93

Maybe Apple doesn't want to pursue a dream which, as far as we know, can only have a limited outcome? They don't really like such compromises in products. Check this: https://medium.com/s/story/self-driving-cars-will-always-be-... > Waymo’s CEO, John Krafcik, has admitted that a self-driving car that can drive in any condition, on any road, without ever needing a human to take control—usually called a “level five” au…

This article is a bit sketchy, but serves my point-ish. They say Volvo is going to release a true self-driving car by 2021. But then it goes on to mention level 4. Let's pull it back a little and say by 2021, they release level 4. If any automaker is going to do Level 5 in the snow. It's going to be Volvo. Being a Swedish company (albeit owned by a Chinese firm now), they have a particular track record when it comes…

Post by shams93 » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 10:21 AM UTC

pentae wrote: 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?

Post by thejohnconway » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 10:24 AM UTC

npunt wrote: post #48

altairiumblue wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Financial performance during the biggest market bull run in history (which lasted almost 10 years) isn't that indicative of the future of company. On the other hand, the declining quality, sloppier design, increased prices on already highly priced products, multiple conflicting product lines - all of those decisions will eventually have consequences. Apple used to be about doing a handful of things really well and ha…

Which product lines are conflicting, and is that conflict a really big deal or just a minor one? Apple has always been self-cannabilizing, see iPod v iPod Mini v iPod nano. The company is much much larger than all these fond remembrances of golden days, which means product lines are going to grow a bit to hit different market segments which each have millions of customers. Is this about iPad v MacBooks?

Post by amelius » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 10:30 AM UTC

ksec wrote: post #112

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.

>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. Autonomous Vehicle, is basically a Giant Mobile iPhone that you can sit in it. There will be lots of custom silicon doing software calculation, LiDAR making 10s to million of input every second, a gigantic battery, and lots of softwares. Although I still…

Post by oblio » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 10:37 AM UTC

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