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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

#341

Post by WDCDev »

coryfklein wrote: post #333

My list so far: Apple, Tesla, Buzzfeed, Verizon/Yahoo/CNBC, HuffPost, SpaceX Doesn't look like the layoffs will be ending soon either. If it was just one or two that would be one thing, but this is forming a pattern. What do all these companies know? I keep hearing word of a potential recession or downturn. Is anybody here more keyed in than myself and can provide an explanation?

Layoffs happen all the time so I am not reading too much into this re. macro economics.

However, I firmly believe the autonomous driving bubble will pop eventually, and you will have layoffs across that entire segment of the tech industry.

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#342

Post by scarface74 »

sib wrote: post #328
scarface74 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are announced security holes in every operating system. But unlike Android, iOS users can actually get security patches for years after they buy their device. Android still has a horrible permission system after all of these years and privacy is laughable. And as far as “iPhones sells are drying up”. They are still predicted to report the second highest revenues this quarter of any company in history - only sur…

"They are still predicted to report the second highest revenues this quarter of any company in history - only surpassed by their previous record." Profits, perhaps, but not revenues.

Yes because we all know that revenue is more important than profit.....

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#343

Post by robbrit »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #120
cheeze wrote: post #4

It always seems odd that huge tech giants like this lay off certain sectors. Are they dumping them because they don't have anywhere else that they'd be useful to Apple? Surely recruiting is harder than moving someone laterally in the company.

A automotive engineer isn't going to be much help on ios mac and phones.

You'd be surprised at how much of automotive development is just regular software engineering. Sure, the 5% of their skills that are automotive-specific aren't much use, but the rest of their skills are certainly useful - especially at Apple, who does actual close-to-the-metal coding.

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#345

Post by justtopost »

simonh wrote: post #276
cenal wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of smart people are staying away thanks to the increasing costs to live in the Bay Area.

Against which you have to balance the risk of taking the NASA job, but not getting paid for a few weeks or months every year.

If you really want a 'NASA' job, your best bet is one of their subcontractors that do most of the actual engineering.

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#346

Post by cma »

notus wrote: post #334
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…

Why do people in these positions use words like 'never' when they are almost always wrong given enough time? Saying there will never be a fully autonomous vehicle is very shortsighted and arrogant.

If you frame a feature you are lacking as something that will never be possible, your own near term solution that solves lots of things but doesn't solve everything seems much more impressive.

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#347

Post by rafiki6 »

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…

Autonomous cars, as with any technology we develop, will likely find it's killer application where it makes the most economical sense. They might start out as busses or even truck, and rather than having a driver behind the wheel, you have control centers where one driver might be managing a whole fleet. Eventually, as we change our infrastructure to accommodate further, I wouldn't be surprised if we rely more and more on them (having a fully ordered traffic system). The key to this is time and patience. It might take 50 years before that occurs.

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#348

Post by jki275 »

kilo_bravo_3 wrote: post #326
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…

> In short, sensors on autonomous vehicles don’t work well in snow or rain—and that may never change. There are sensors that can see through snow. They are very expensive, and only in the lab right now, but in the very near future there will (not "may") be processing packages that can fuse optical, radar, and other data into a coherent picture that will allow a computer to see a snow-covered road, through falling sno…

SAR is probably going to be the killer sensor that makes all this happen.

Just a matter of time.

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#349

Post by minikites »

bunnycorn wrote: post #266
minikites wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reliability? They can't make a laptop keyboard that survives an encounter with a crumb and if you open your laptop too many times the video cable gets severed: https://ifixit.org/blog/12903/

Wow! You really believe that a crumb can break a MBP keyboard? God have mercy on your soul. Really, is that the best that Apple competitors can do!? You are all ridiculous, there are MILLIONS of MBPs out there, must all those millions live in a enclosed dome where no dust can get in. Seriously, nobody has time for your anti-Apple nonsense, I don't know why I even replied.

I believe it because Apple admitted it was true: https://theoutline.com/post/5052/apple-admits-its-computers-...

Re: Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit

#350

Post by robotnixon »

DeonPenny wrote: post #301
bunnycorn wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As usual. The truth is that Apple hasn't promised anything and delivered nothing. Google on the other side, has promised everything and delivered nothing. And they promissed it "in five years" in 2012...

Aren't they running trials now

Waymo have been operating on public roads since 2017.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/7/16615290/waymo-self-drivi...

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