Apple Is Said to Be Rethinking Strategy on Self-Driving Cars

[Zorro]

Apple is rethinking what it plans to do about self-driving cars, just as other big tech companies appear ready to plow ahead with competing efforts.

In a retrenchment of one of its most ambitious initiatives, Apple has shuttered parts of its self-driving car project and laid off dozens of employees, according to three people briefed on the move who were not allowed to speak about it publicly.

The job cuts are the latest sign of trouble with Apple’s car initiative. The company has added resources to the project — code-named Titan — over the last two years, but it has struggled to make progress. And in July, the company brought in Bob Mansfield, a highly regarded Apple veteran, to take over the effort.

Apple is not the only big tech company pursuing autonomous driving technology. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has tested self-driving cars on the road for years, but its focus has been on designing the underlying software and systems to make that technology work. Tesla has a self-driving feature within its cars that has come under scrutiny in recent months after a fatal accident was connected to its use.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/10/technology/apple-is-said-to-be-rethinking-strategy-on-self-driving-cars.html

[longship]

1. IMHO, it's a boondoggle.

The complexity of the software is going to kill this venture, hopefully before too many autonomous car riders die.

My thinking, a good part of the country has significant weather and road conditions that will make autonomous cars basically inoperable.

It sounds like a Kurzweil Matrix wet dream to me.

[NBachers]

2. I agree with the weather and road conditions problem.

[Humanist_Activist]

3. I don't know if its that, this is just Apple being Apple, they probably can't think...

of ways to make money off of it.

Here's a monthly report from Google through, and its funny:

http://www.businessinsider.com/google-on-how-people-act-when-they-see-autonomous-cars-2016-9?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark/#here-we-see-a-woman-in-an-electric-wheelchair-chasing-a-duck-with-a-broom-in-the-middle-of-the-road-you-read-that-correctly-1

[athena]

4. IMHO, self-driving cars are pointless.

The natural extension of the idea of a self-driving car is a self-driving train, which already exists and is being used around the world. Instead of wasting effort on self-driving cars, we should improve and expand our rail systems.

[longship]

5. That's a very good idea.

The rail roadway is constrained, unlike where I live where roads are not even paved, let alone constrained.

But then again, I've always been a big fan of railroads.

[athena]

11. Part of the problem is that we're too spread out.

As the oil supply shrinks (which will happen sooner or later), we will all have to move to areas where there is more civilization. Assuming we manage to stop population growth, this will be a good thing, since we will be returning more land to wildlife.

This is in fact already happening. My husband loves to point out that millennials are not as into driving as our generation was. Many of them seem prefer cities to suburbs. Whether Republicans like it or not, at some point, we will have to go back to investing in rail. I hope I'll be around to see it.

I just don't think that self-driving cars are the wave of the future. It's a very short-sighted vision, which assumes that the American lifestyle, with one car per person, is sustainable.

[complain jane]

7. Expand it, definitely.

I would welcome it where I live, for my own convenience and the increase in my property value to be near a station (I'm assuming).

[complain jane]

6. I just don't understand why Apple would pursue this.

I've been using Apple products since the early 90s. Love them, frustrated by them, still use them, typing this on my MacBook Pro. I have annoyances with their execution of the software that they already provide. I'm apprehensive about upgrading to a new OS controlling my iPhone let alone something controlling a vehicle I'm in. And again, I actually do love Apple, and I realize I'm being oversimplistic, but still...

[C_U_L8R]

8. I'd be happy if they just worked on the business they've got

Apple's incremental product strategy is a joke.
What happened to leading the way with innovation?
Each iPhone revision is just more syrupy Ive veneer.
And their Mac Pro line seems abandoned without
an upgrade in years. Seems like the bean counters
are running the show. Sad.

[whistler162]

9. Hopefully, unlike the latest iPhone they

don't remove something useful like say the doors!

[standingtall]

10. I think self driving cars is a terrible and dangerous idea.

Driving includes way to many variables. I don't believe it is possible to program a car how to react properly in every situation. Better a human with actual reflexes behind the wheel.

[Humanist_Activist]

12. You should read the monthly reports from Google's efforts...

I provided a link above.

The fact is that human reflexes and judgement sucks, otherwise 10s of thousands wouldn't die on the roads every year, and most of that was user error.

Not saying that self-driving cars are ready for prime time now, but we definitely pursue the technology.