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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

#531

Post by ClumsyPilot »

dublinben wrote: post #498
freeone3000 wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple cars would aim more for the (1) bracket than the (3). Apple products are status items. Same particular utility can be had much cheaper.

How can Apple products be status items when over 60% of smartphones in the US are iPhones? Is Coca-Cola a status item? Is it possible that they're just good products that deliver good value to the majority of people who buy them? Is a $1300 Galaxy S24 Ultra not a status item?

> How can Apple products be status items when over 60% of smartphones in the US are iPhones?

How can an official suit and tie be a status item if most men have one?

How can a good beard be a status item if it grows for free?

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

#532

Post by insane_dreamer »

riddlemethat wrote: post #3

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

Apple knows it has a captive userbase already. Better to let the others make first-mover mistakes and then come in with something that avoids those.

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

#533

Post by the_mar »

krunck wrote: post #454
thefourthchime wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not true you can have complete end to end encryption. By default. iCloud is not encrypted, but you can encrypt it and nobody but you can get access access your data. It's off by default because if you lose the password then you lose everything and that's a support nightmare.

Who can confirm this though?

Can and do are two vastly different things. The assumption that data privacy can only be accomplished by no one having any access to data is ridiculous. Of all the companies that exist right now, apple does a fair bit of work regarding data anonymization and access restriction.

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

#534

Post by sitkack »

ponector wrote: post #75
MBCook wrote: 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…

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.

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

#536

Post by alsetmusic »

acaloiar wrote: post #522

> The two executives told staffers that the project will begin winding down and that many employees on the car team — known as the Special Projects Group, or SPG — will be shifted to the artificial intelligence division under executive John Giannandrea. Those employees will focus on generative AI projects, an increasingly key priority for the company. This line really excited my PR-spin senses. The set of people work…

I thought the skills for building an engine and those for building software were largely the same? /s

Yes. They'll be letting a lot of people go. This smells like a controlled leak to signal that the company isn't experiencing cooling sales / services when that happens.

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

#537

Post by sitkack »

pie420 wrote: post #528
gtirloni wrote: post #514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's so simple why don't we see regional manufacturers popping everywhere?

We do. Rivian(illinois), Fiskar (Los angeles), VINFast (vietnam), 20 chinese brands, Polestar (china), Lucid (saudi arabia), Canoo, Rimac (balkans). When was the last time a new car company was started, pre-EV?

Saturn.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Corporation

And it wasn't entirely independent. Before that it was DeLorean? But he was kinda setup in a trap that put him into prison.

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

#538

Post by fiskeben »

coldtea wrote: post #506
evan_ wrote: post #490

If I were running a successful company I would stay as far away from selling cars as possible- it can't imagine how bad it is for PR (not to mention your psyche) to suddenly have "Family killed by drunk driver" headlines with a giant color picture of your flagship product, blood-stained and mangled below it.

That's a strange thought. Neither the name or logo of famous car brands got associated or tarnished by tens of thousands killed every year... Even when some of them ocassionally made a specific "death trap" model or production run, that's simply not how people thinks of them.

At least here in Norway, if a Tesla is involved in anything, the headline will make sure to mention it.

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

#539

Post by Raptor22 »

andrewia wrote: post #267

I know somebody on the project. The cancellation makes sense, they were years from release and every new VP pivoted the project and lost progress. If they had committed to their original project (a bus) or the first revision (a very high-end car) they could have released on a timely schedule. But they're far too late to the game.

> original project (a bus)

This is actually insane to me. Like bonkers, even. The MBA types are surely the source of that idea. From a brand perspective, the only car that ever truly made sense for Apple to make was something at least resembling a supercar. They could have made do with a Telsa Model S kind of car perhaps, but I'm shocked that a brand-conscious company like Apple thought a bus was the best bet as an initial product.

First impressions are vitally important. In my opinion, a car brand can go from making high performance cars to more "practical" vehicles once they've established their brand, but not the other way around. Slapping an Apple badge on a Corolla isn't going to work. Steve Jobs said it best, paraphrasing "We want to build computers that customers would want to lick.". If Apple wants to be a legitimate car company that enthusiasts like, they'd have to build a car those people would lick. Not a bus...

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

#540

Post by smoldesu »

intrasight wrote: post #525
smoldesu wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be great to see, if they pull it off. I suspect that Apple's desire for control and curation (as well as limited liability) will prevent them from making an effective "one size fits all" model, though. Considering that local AI isn't a paid service or a system-seller, it makes more sense for Apple to double-down on software support rather than trying to Sherlock the world with their own model. Time will tell…

I think they'll be training-agnostic (will use whomever's hardware gets it done) but will optimize their silicon and hardware stack for running models locally. This is VERY EARLY days of use-facing AI (besides the Nvidia bubble, which is late-days)

I definitely agree that Apple will optimize their SOC, but IMO their best solution is to just copy Nvidia's homework. Dedicated inferencing hardware is power-hungry and rarely any better than the beefed-up GPU or even a RISC CPU core at a decent clock speed. Integrating AI at the GPU-level lets you get dual-purpose functionality out of the same silicon; it's what Nvidia has built towards since they started shipping CUDA.

> besides the Nvidia bubble, which is late-days

The Nvidia bubble might just be beginning, if we keep relying on phrases like "training agnostic" to pay our dividends.

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