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Ex-Apple VP Mike Abbott Joins General Motors as Exec Vice President, Software

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Re: Ex-Apple VP Mike Abbott Joins General Motors as Exec Vice President, Software

#71

Post by hedora »

hospitalJail wrote: post #34
glanzwulf wrote: post #4

Hope he convinces them to go back on the stupid decision that is to abandon Carplay/Android Auto.

I personally like having a car with these, but I'm not convinced it will be the death of GM like people predict. >GM was not affected by PRISM, so they could make claims of having a privacy oriented vehicle. That messaging does really well on HN and I imagine other communities as well. >The other thing is deeper integration. Yes it sounds like a security nightmare, but you will get additional features this way. >You…

Not affected by PRISM? Although technically true, it's mostly because PRISM predated the hardware, and because GM touts the big brother stuff as a feature of OnStar. Here are two recent articles, four years apart (though they have been doing this for much longer):

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2017/01/15/polic...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/04/01/these...

Re: Ex-Apple VP Mike Abbott Joins General Motors as Exec Vice President, Software

#72

Post by mgkimsal »

skyyler wrote: post #35
SilasX wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They removed the home button on iPhones, which was a net loss, since face recognition is much less reliable and easy to use than fingerprint, and requires a visually-disruptive bar overlay to indicate you need to swipe up.

Gestures are way more comfortable for me than a button ever was.

You have to look at the device to open it. It's by nature another step of distraction. Grabbing a device and having your thumb on it opening it up so that it's ready to go by the time it reaches your eyes... it's faster. What gesture gets you back to the main/home screen as quickly? I still regret (somewhat) moving away from the SE, and might move back. I found an old one in the desk and it's making me want to move back.

Re: Ex-Apple VP Mike Abbott Joins General Motors as Exec Vice President, Software

#73

Post by Zigurd »

It's a strange hire if you focus on software in the car, which GM says is Android Automotive (not Android Auto). He would not know a lot about Android.

But it looks sensible if he is more about cloud services: Dash cam video uploads, content management, etc.

Re: Ex-Apple VP Mike Abbott Joins General Motors as Exec Vice President, Software

#74

Post by r00fus »

gowings97 wrote: post #11
altairprime wrote: post #3

Presumably related to: GM plans to phase out CarPlay in EVs, with Google’s help https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35389021 (38 days ago, 377 comments)

Kind of, but not really. What GM is proposing here goes even deeper. There are three current solutions - - (2018 -> Today) Some existing solution that runs QNX as the base OS, that runs Android Auto / Carplay as an Application - (2023 - > Today) A new based OS that is a skinned version of Android Automotive OS (AAOS / https://developers.google.com/cars/design/automotive-os ) that runs both Android Auto Carplay and Ca…

I figured it was this. I mean, my car runs Ford Sync3 that runs CarPlay/AA (built by MS) and AAOS seems to compete directly with that.

The flamebait position trumpeted by GM CEO seems to be "we won't enable the CarPlay/AA app" but that could be reversed quite quickly when they realize customers don't want the builtin AAOS or AAOS doesn't do what CarPlay/AA can do.

The alternative is that AAOS has Apple Music and other apps built in (probably not Apple Maps) - like what you see with Tesla. I wonder if Apple will concede to this.

Re: Ex-Apple VP Mike Abbott Joins General Motors as Exec Vice President, Software

#75

Post by freedomben »

paganel wrote: post #55
spacedcowboy wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is utter bullshit, as a cloud Apple employee. Mike was an excellent leader in iCloud, championed a whole bunch of new tech, and took a failing business and made it massively profitable. I don't think anyone in Eddy's org was happy to see him go.

Sure hope iCloud is “massively profitable”, they’ve been spamming me non-stop with their messages both on my phone and on my laptop ever since my cloud hardware disk space there (which I had never asked for in the first place) got “full” or such some time ago. Otherwise great hardware products, both the Apple phone and the Apple laptop.

> Otherwise great hardware products, both the Apple phone and the Apple laptop.

as a person who (prior to the framework laptop) would like to buy macbooks and put linux on them (love apple hardware, hate their software and philosophical approach to things) I used to say this a lot, but I'm stopping.

As has become clear to me through conversation, there is no hardware without software in Apple's approach/opinion. It's not really a computer, it's more of an appliance. You don't buy a toaster and be unhappy that you can't put Linux on it. As engineers we like to separate software and hardware, but that's just not how Apple works. You can't just buy in to the hardware, because the hardware and the software are a complete unit. In other words, we've been looking at things the wrong way and once you view it correctly Apple's approach starts to make a lot of sense. If you don't agree with this view, then (as I've been told many times) you're not the target market.

Re: Ex-Apple VP Mike Abbott Joins General Motors as Exec Vice President, Software

#76

Post by flounder3 »

spacedcowboy wrote: post #29
raincom wrote: post #7

Mike Abbott was kicked out of Apple where he didn’t make any meaningful contribution. Why GM is picking him up? Another wasteful move.

This is utter bullshit, as a cloud Apple employee. Mike was an excellent leader in iCloud, championed a whole bunch of new tech, and took a failing business and made it massively profitable. I don't think anyone in Eddy's org was happy to see him go.

No, it is not bullshit. And no, he certainly was not excellent. Perhaps he managed to take credit for a few "good" things, but it's interesting to watch you defend someone who was ~so~ widely hated.

I could give you a list of 40 tenured engineers and leaders in Eddy's org [along with at least 20 in adjacent orgs] who physically celebrated his departure.

Re: Ex-Apple VP Mike Abbott Joins General Motors as Exec Vice President, Software

#77

Post by ericmay »

hospitalJail wrote: post #54
ericmay wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> GM was not affected by PRISM, so they could make claims of having a privacy oriented vehicle I don't this this really follows. Can't you be unaffected by PRISM and then later also sell lots of customer data or whatever? Though I agree this won't be the death of GM. The worst case is they later go back and just add Carplay and Android Auto and waste a bunch of money trying to write their own stuff. > >You also write…

> this isn't the case for any person or corporation and it never will be. You always rely on someone or something else. Come on now... You know what I'm talking about. We arent talking about making a car from raw materials, we are talking about in-house vs outsource.

I know what you mean but it's just an arbitrary line in the sand on web browsers. A web browser in this context is just another raw material input that is no different than tires, paint, skilled workers, or anything else.

Re: Ex-Apple VP Mike Abbott Joins General Motors as Exec Vice President, Software

#78

Post by OnlineGladiator »

throw9away6 wrote: post #47
tough wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe GM needs to hire throw9away6 for driving innovation in their software dpt

I’d Probably be just as ineffective but you could pay me less

> ...pay...less

Get this man a raise!

Re: Ex-Apple VP Mike Abbott Joins General Motors as Exec Vice President, Software

#79

Post by philwelch »

LarryDarrell wrote: post #26

The 2022 Chevy Silverado I rented died at 488 miles on the odometer. The roadside assistance mechanic said the transmission "lost data connection to the engine". Later, a tow truck had to drag it onto it's flatbed as the rear wheels were locked up. Also, apparently the tailgate is electric now. And for some reason it stopped working when the transmission died. Also also, there is no way to turn the truck off? When it…

Worth pointing out that GM actually failed as a business and only survived the 2008 recession because the government briefly nationalized it as part of an economic bailout. In a free market GM wouldn’t exist.

Re: Ex-Apple VP Mike Abbott Joins General Motors as Exec Vice President, Software

#80

Post by tonymet »

Quick poll: who here doesn't want infotainment software in their car? How about keeping cars limited to 1990s level logic: basic ICs, fuel / emissions / safety control (abs, airbags).

Something like 1990s Mazda with a japanese-size pickup, miata & basic sedan / hatchback.

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