Slashdot Mirror
Apple Puts Brakes on Self-driving Car Project, Report Says (theguardian.com)
Apple is following the road taken by Waymo, the autonomous vehicle subsidiary of Google-parent Alphabet, and downshifting on its still-unannounced self-driving car project, according to a report in the New York Times. From a report: The company has been working on its automotive technology under the internal code name "Project Titan" since at least 2014, and once intended to build its own vehicle from start to finish, creating a true "Apple Car." Now it's put the car-building side of the project on hold, perhaps indefinitely, as it instead focuses on creating and perfecting the software and hardware necessary to get a self-driving car on the streets. Apple is now planning on working with other car-makers to get its self-driving tech into the garages and driveways of customers, according to the paper. One upcoming example of that collaboration: an autonomous shuttle service that will ferry employees back and forth between the company's Silicon Valley offices in Palo Alto and Cupertino. That project, which will use conventional cars with self-driving kit bolted on, is known as "Pail", standing for Palo Alto to Infinite Loop, the street address of the company's main campus. The name highlights the delays in the project, since Apple's main campus is already in the process of being moved to Apple Park, an enormous ring-shaped office down the road.
That's what you get when you remove and remove features, at one point you might remove one that is crucial.
In the name of pedestrians everywhere, thanks for putting the brakes back onto your damn cars!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Next Apple project - flailing around and reheating Job's leftover ideas. They need someone with vision or accept that they are a commodity supplier.
there are about 10 companies ahead of them in the race. They got put back in their box.
The only Apple location that I know about in Palo Alto is the Apple Store. Although the Palo Alto Apple Store is the flagship store, I find it confusing as to why Apple needs a self-driving shuttle to take employees from the Cupertino campuses to Palo Alto. Between the Infinite Loop and the Mothership campuses in Cupertino, sure. But not Palo Alto.
a car with lights that cost $30 each dealer only service failed in the test marketing group.
We need a criminal case with hard ass judge like the one from my cousin vinny. That will jail people for contempt of court if they try to delay Bickering among groups / sub contractor / contractors.
Also if they try to hide under an NDA / EULA / etc.
And here I thought self-driving cars braked themselves.
Unbelievable how they don't get that the vertical integration of the iOS architecture (hardware + software + services) is what makes them stand out with the grand majority of users (not talking about technologists and hobbyists, but mom, pops and most users)
Windows will never have that while catering to multiple hardware vendors
Android will never have that while catering to multiple hardware vendors
As far as I can tell Tesla is the only one doing the all-around solution approach, while others are going with accesorizing other's cars..
Incredible how that single factor being key in their success so far, doesn't make them go all the way in Cars as well. It's not that they don't have the money.. Not saying it's easy!! But come fucking on..! Take big obstacles HEAD ON, damn it!!
More and more people are coming to the conclusion that the "self driving" or autonomous car is still many years in the future. It's like the flying car. What if something goes wrong? You're f#@ked.
Remember that for quite some time, the rumor was that Apple was going to release its own line of TV sets. Many people (including myself) thought that was a stupid idea, since it would put Apple into the TV manufacturing business, which is pretty cutthroat.
I think the same problems occur with the concept of Apple building its own self-driving car, except that car manufacturing is far more complex, capital-intensive, and labor-intensive than building TV sets, while still being just as cutthroat (note that US car mfgrs are dealing with slowing sales and mounting inventory). So, Apple's move is, generally speaking, a sane one.
On the other hand, Apple has largely blown its approach to the actual Apple TV to date (I own two and am a fan, but I love my Echo and Dot more), so who knows what it will achieve on the automotive front.
Bruce F. Webster (brucefwebster.com)
They've decided to only run over their own employees during the testing/learning phase.
This is not news.
a car with lights that cost $30 each dealer only service failed in the test marketing group.
Maybe they realized the problem with the upgrade to a new model every 2 years and discard/hand-down hardware demand model...
You can't hand down a car to anyone less than 16yo, and anyone above that age wants the new model not the old one....
Now on to business Plan B.
Sell Apple. You were foolish not to when he died
Steve Jobs died October 5, 2011. Just before that, AAPL was at $57.83/share, which is the lowest that it's been since then, aside from a small dip in the weeks immediately after his death. It's now at a bit over $159/share. That's around a 16% annual return on investment. What did you buy when you sold your AAPL shares that gave you a better return?
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
the apple only changing cables with an $200+ 120V outlet cable was to far and in the past when alienware tried an $50 add on for an better desktop power cable
Apple does not make its own phone, laptops or anything else as far as I know. All contract manufacturing. Even car companies outsource a large fraction of cars. Manufacturing is also not nearly as profitable as software. Making one more is not sending another copy of the sw via the internet.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Or if you want something a little safer (non-tech) but still growing much faster than AAPL, try MA (MasterCard). On Oct. 7, 2011, it closed at $31.15. Since then, it has grown by a factor of 4.28, while AAPL has grown by only a factor of 2.74. So if you invested the same amount of money on October 7, 2011 in both stocks and sold them today, you would have gained almost twice as much with MA as AAPL.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.